Strange Connections (II?)

[Daniel]

I hadn't expected the entire thread to have vanished, but it has been a long time since I have been an active member of the community.

I wanted to write about a new experience (for me) which has helped me realize that the Dreamfilm Experience is not an isolated event. It is a categorical event. Yes, I have discovered a second Dreamfilm. Comparisons between the two will help scholars who are interested in defining the categories.

The film: A Heavenly Vintage

If you haven't seen it yet, please do so. Highly recommended. I would especially like people to notice the similarities between Brokeback Mountain and A Heavenly Vintage, as by doing so we might understand more deeply how such films can so deeply influence our thought processes and identities.

[Lynne]

Thank you, Daniel.

I see the original Strange Connections has been archived.  Let me know (or Penth or Ellemeno) if you wish to restore it, and we can merge your new post with your original blog.

It's nice to see you here again.

Lynne

[Daniel]

Thank you, Lynne, that would be excellent.

I've been out of town over the past few days due to my grandmother's funeral. I was a pallbearer, and although at the time I was just eager to get it done and out of the way, I hope it will be some time before I have to be one again.

[Meryl]

Well look what Hurricane Sandy the wind blew in!  Nice to see you here again, Daniel. 

My condolences on the loss of your grandmother.  I hope you have a very long break from funerals, too.

Here's a link I found for the trailer for A Heavenly Vintage.  Looks interesting:

[Daniel]

Yes, I forgot to say that the film has two titles. The Vintner's Luck is the other one. As far as I know the films are exactly the same and only the title is different. The film is based on the book Vinter's Luck: A Novel by Elizabeth Knox (and one I am searching to purchase at the nearest convenience).

[Front-Ranger]

Welcome back, Daniel!! It's great to see you. I'll look for that film asap!

[Lynne]

Thank you, Lynne, that would be excellent.

I've been out of town over the past few days due to my grandmother's funeral. I was a pallbearer, and although at the time I was just eager to get it done and out of the way, I hope it will be some time before I have to be one again.

I am sorry to hear of your grandmother's death.  I think it is a lot to ask of a grandson to be a pallbearer, but I guess these things vary by family and tradition. 

I've asked the Admins to restore your original Strange Connections as a blog, so your original thread will be there in its entirety.  You may keep this thread separate or merge them and create more.

It is good to see you around again!
Lynne

[Daniel]

Well, it is nice to again be a full-blooded  Bettermostian, not that I had ever stopped being one, but I did travel a bit to experience the world a little. So I think that the Strange Connections boards should remain separate. Feel free, though, to read and comment on the first Strange Connections blog if you had not done so and you feel the desire. It is sometimes remarkable how things connect in the mind and in reality, and that is what both of these threads relate.

[Daniel]

In my exploration of what a Dreamfilm is, it is necessary I think to examine the musicality (and that is to say the pure emotionality of music) that is used in both films. The Brokeback Mountain soundtrack was greatly influential to the spiritual movements of the film, and I believe that it is safe to say the same of A Heavenly Vintage. Both soundtracks are highly emotionally evocative. It is unfortunate that there is no separately recorded soundtrack for A Heavenly Vintage, but it is an enjoyable experience. The amazing work of Antonio Pinto.

[Daniel]

Let's look at some reviews of the film A Heavenly Vintage.

Like Brokeback Mountain, its reviews are mixed. There are some who get the film, and others who do not. But what is interesting to note is that those who have a significant response to the film in its emotional and cerebral context have similar responses like those once held by Brokies regarding Brokeback Mountain. Consider the review below, compare it verbally and emotively with some of our own responses to Brokeback Mountain, and I think we will find some similarities and parallels.

Every so often (but not too often), a film comes along that makes one wonder whether the director has some special key to the doorway of one’s very imagination; as if the images one sees in one’s head have been transposed onto a film strip and projected for the world to see. It is gloriously and frighteningly intimate, and that is precisely the film Niki Caro has made. From the very first scene, a pair of delicately beautiful white hands pouring a glass of wine and holding it to the lips of an aged man. There are no faces and no voices, only images and sound; an ambient evocation of reading the novel itself.
The film unfolds like a Renaissance painting, with breathtaking Burgundy landscapes, in dark hues of reds and browns; the wine and the soil. This film breathes, perspirating with a sensual and rich palette that one can practically taste. Ordinary life is transformed into the extraordinary, as Caro takes an unhurried pleasure in showcasing the very movement of the earth and the life within – the dewdrops on leaves, the bright insect crawling along the rotting wood of a log. And then, out of the darkness of the vineyard at night, a pair of white wings perched on a ridge. The heart and emotion of the film is not in the dialogue, but in the image. There is an insatiable hunger in every scene, pulsing with life and desire and all that is of human essence. The angel Xas tells Sobran (and thus the audience), “You cannot have desire without despair,” and so instills a balance that surrounds the entire film – life and death, love and lust, flourish and rot.
A particular scene come to mind when I consider the evocative mastery of this film – the first is a scene of exquisite intimacy and unbridled passion between the angel Xas and the vintner Sobran. It is a dance of cat-and-mouse, as the two characters push and shove and grasp and catch each other in a metaphorical act of lovemaking. Xas raises Sobran to the height of the rafters only to let him fall, but in an instant is at the bottom to catch him, holding on for dear life. Just as Sobran encourages the Baroness Aurora to feel a wine, to learn its character and life, Caro demands the same of us. The film is not simply for watching, it is a full embrace of all the senses and all the facets, both cruel and wonderful, of the human (and divine) experience.