Leviathan
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Tue 3 December 2013 // 20:00
Tuesday 3 December, 8pm. £5/4
Lucien Castaing-Taylor: USA/France/UK, 2012. 87 minutes; certificate 12A
Prepare to go to sea. Leviathan is a documentary that transports us offshore on a commercial fishing trawler working off the coast of New England. The narrative is delivered through a dream-like abstract mix of colour, sound and movement as the fishermen go about their business. Sometimes the point of view follows the rhythms of the the waves and machinery, and sometimes it is focused in intense long close-ups. It’s a hard life on board, and the hand- held camera puts the viewer at the very centre of the activity.
Leviathan is an immersive film that appeals to the senses, and as such a documentary cinema experience. The camera takes us into the bowels of the fishing vessel and reveals the stark reality of the tattooed fishermen in their boots, and though they are faceless and hardly speak we feel the weight of their isolation and their human intrusion in the ocean environment.
We experience a taste of the life at sea and witness their expertise as they slice and heave and haul and work; but we also experience the perspective of the fish as water slops over the camera and seagulls circle above the surface of the bleak menacing night time North Atlantic Ocean. The combination of artistic abstract style and relentless unflinching reality are both fascinating and disorientating.
The pounding and pulsating distorted sounds of the waves and the fishing gear add to a feeling that we have entered a different unfamiliar world. Viewers who suffer from seasickness are advised to take a Stugeron before the screening (please read the label first).
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wNiJt-I6U
Lucien Castaing-Taylor: USA/France/UK, 2012. 87 minutes; certificate 12A
Prepare to go to sea. Leviathan is a documentary that transports us offshore on a commercial fishing trawler working off the coast of New England. The narrative is delivered through a dream-like abstract mix of colour, sound and movement as the fishermen go about their business. Sometimes the point of view follows the rhythms of the the waves and machinery, and sometimes it is focused in intense long close-ups. It’s a hard life on board, and the hand- held camera puts the viewer at the very centre of the activity.
Leviathan is an immersive film that appeals to the senses, and as such a documentary cinema experience. The camera takes us into the bowels of the fishing vessel and reveals the stark reality of the tattooed fishermen in their boots, and though they are faceless and hardly speak we feel the weight of their isolation and their human intrusion in the ocean environment.
We experience a taste of the life at sea and witness their expertise as they slice and heave and haul and work; but we also experience the perspective of the fish as water slops over the camera and seagulls circle above the surface of the bleak menacing night time North Atlantic Ocean. The combination of artistic abstract style and relentless unflinching reality are both fascinating and disorientating.
The pounding and pulsating distorted sounds of the waves and the fishing gear add to a feeling that we have entered a different unfamiliar world. Viewers who suffer from seasickness are advised to take a Stugeron before the screening (please read the label first).
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wNiJt-I6U