Saw India Song (1975), an extremely slow, extremely arty film about a French diplomat and his wife who is carrying on multiple affairs. This is all told to us via voice-over while slow endless shots of characters sitting in poses plays out on the film. Several still shots are so still, you can only tell that it's not a photograph by the smoke moving in the background. The diplomat's wife stares inscrutably at the camera while her coterie of boyfriends surround her.
I feel this movie was too arty for me. It reminded me a lot of Last Year At Marienbad which may be the most grueling movie I've ever sat through. This one was a hair more accessible and its themes were more apparent, but it's just so slow, so arid and inaccessible. I longed for a car chase.
Anyway, about those themes: they are the conventional ones of colonialist stories: ennui, lack of meaning and purpose, the vague feeling that you're losing the culture of your homeland and being corrupted by the native culture. They talk a lot about lepers, underlining the corruption theme. The diplomat is aware of his wife's affairs, but is indifferent. One character asks another if anyone ever gets used to the heat. "I hope no one ever does." is the response.
So boy howdy I did not like this film. It comes from the list of top 1000 films as compiled by They Shoot Pictures dot com, clocking in at #449, so I assume there's something good here I'm just too addled to understand. I will concede that it is different, but it's not different in a good way. I feel it should have been a radio play.
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