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Michael is a young local astronomer caught up in experiments
to break down the barriers between space and time. An encounter
with Caroline, an enigmatic French photographer, soon develops
into an obsessive love affair. However, Michael's experiments
have turned everything into a kind of claustrophobic dreamscape
where all sense of reality has been lost. In a series of flashbacks,
Michael's mental state collapses like the black star he's
observing, as he struggles to work out if he is a ghost or
if it is Caroline who has left this world...
Maybe
I'm getting old and cynical, but these young love tales mixed
with time travel don't do it for me any more. Okay, Back
to the Future was fun (and still is) but there's something
self indulgent and a little tacky when it's done as an Art
House picture.
I
remember at university one of my friends was studying film
and I lost count of the number of students who made movies
about a male outsider (always signifies the director/writer
in my book) who meets a mysterious beautiful woman (who by
rights shouldn't give him a second glance) they fall in love
and then someone dies (the man, the woman, a small cat...)
and the camera spins out of control to show the audience that
the other part is lost without the dead partner.
While
A Woman in Winter
is far better than this, there are still too many points where
I winced with embarrassment. There's Michael and Caroline's
first meeting; their rendezvous in the Botanical Gardens;
and Caroline's unfathomable insistence on standing on a bridge
and twirling like a five-year-old.
While
I got what the director was trying to do - and very clever
it was too - I just couldn't help thinking it could have been
a little less awkward in its delivery.
The
director also hints, in his audio commentary, that the script
is open to interpretation - that he really doesn't have the
answers to what is going on himself. While I applaud his stance
on not shepherding the audience through the narrative, it
would have been interesting to hear what he thinks is happening
in the story. I've already made up my mind (and to be frank
the little clues dotted around the film don't really leave
much room for guess work - if you re-watch the movie it's
pretty clear what the story is) but the writer/director's
point of view would have been welcomed.
Extras
include an audio commentary with the director; a Making
of featurette (23 mins); and a really poor music video
- so nothing to really get you excited. This is a shame, because
I think that the director could have provided a little more
insight into what he was trying to achieve - instead of his
insistence on continually mentioning that this movie was filmed
in Scotland and his slightly racist attitude to the English.
Everyone will take away something different from this movie
(something I always applaud, but rarely witness these days)
and it would have been great to have heard his original ideas
of what he envisaged for the film, and how these changed once
the filming process started.
Tartan,
as ever, offer us a fantastic DTS surround soundtrack - which
is well worth cranking up and annoying the neighbours. There
are some seriously jumpy segments that rely on the sound in
order to work, and these work so much better in surround sound.
At
the end of the day this movie will not be to everyone's taste.
But, even if you don't care for the story, you can't help
but be impressed by the visuals. The lighting director and
director of photography really earned their salary on this
one. This is one of the most beautiful independent films I've
ever seen.
Pete
Boomer
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