‘In the mood for love’ is a slow-painted portrait of Time.
And that’s the most interesting thing about films. Time as a concept has always been ambiguous and out for interpretation. When Andrei Tarkovsky said that “Cinema is a Mosiac made of time” One must wonder what it means, I’ll not go into that, But rather Just talk about time and philosophy in Cinema.
The candle scene in Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia is the prime example of Time, Where for almost 9 minutes we see the character just going backward and forward like a pendulum
“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”
We even in the mundanity of that scene feel time passing by, Time and memories collide, and thus they create a mosaic and mind wonders, to even feel the great and little tensions. Why is it that the 9 min scene creates just a vague impression of Time drag? The scene is structured that way and how beautifully he has captured this that we don’t just feel time passing by, We feel its Texture. And I agree and believe that Tarkovsky made time a Substance, And in his films, Time is not an idea, or a concept but it indeed is a substance.
Sometimes a film inside your brain goes slow, But the memory of that film is faster than light. Space and time in a film are very complex. Agnes Varda’s ‘Cleo from 5 to 7” Runs for 90 mins, But the film spans for 120. Which is close but different. Fiction and reality. And how far will I run? I must at some point have to talk about Wong Kar Wai’s ‘In the mood for love’
But I can't. I’m not defeated by the film, I don’t still understand it, I’m not so much proud of this, But also I’m not ashamed of me not writing clearly about the film, Frames within Frames. How Beautiful.
Tarkovsky is indeed a genius and Agnes Varda is referred to as the Godmother of ‘French New Wave’
And I’m so in awe of “In the mood for love” That I don’t think I’ll be able to write about the film right now, Today, This time. Every once in a while, It’s ok to be blown by a film that makes you not say anything, It makes you numb and Wong Kar wai’s ‘In the mood for love’ Has taken a part of me forever, it’s in it and now when you watch that film, You’ll find parts of me not so deep inside the film.
“In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn’t want to share… you know what they did? They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever.”
DEEP TIME & SPACE MELANCHOLIA
And we fade slowly, In the first parts of the Afternoon. You decode me in frames, Frames within Frames, A slow and disgusting me takes you to a windy place under a burning tree. Time is a disturbing Painting, Words-like these are mostly vague, Ideas like these are mostly for the dustbins Much of the planet is deep in the fading jazz, With me and you and the Afternoon, And I waited for almost 1000 years at the airport, And I agree, Now “The days are long, And the years are short”
