Samsara (2001)
I liked this it was quite unique...The best part was the deconstruction of the wise & virtuous Buddhist monk myth. By that I mean, our boy, the former monk becomes a dumb ass when he ventures out into the real world. It's a world he knows nothing about because he's been sequestered in isolation on top of a mountain monastery. But when he gets the chance to call the shots, he makes just about every blunder that he can. And the film is not afraid to show that either, which I found refreshing.
Some might think of this film as a serene & peaceful meditative look at wise Buddhist and how a safe life in a monastery is much better than the real world. But IMO that would be missing the point of the film maker. That point is: you can't know wisdom if you ain't experienced life. I realized that when the former monk falsely accuses a villager of setting the wheat on fire and the villager tells him,
he would never do such a thing and has told him that
he doesn't understand life in the valley and that
he needs to grow up.
But he's incapable of understanding the consequence of his own actions as he goes into town and falsely accuses the grain buyer of starting the fire, and then later seduces the farm girl despite the fact that he loves his wife and she loves him. He's a dumb ass.
I liked the actor as he often looked a little loss in the world outside of his monastery, I think he fit the part well and did a good job. The actress that played his wife was beautiful, almost too much for the movie, but she was very good at being strong especially in the end scene.
Mostly the movie looked good and the locations and cinematography were good too. The rock dropping on the goat was lame. I hate the cliche of invoking a reaction by killing an animal in a movie, it's a tired idea that needs to be retired from use.
I didn't like how several times when people left the scene, they just disappeared, as the film was edited so that they poofed out of the frame, which made me think it was suppose to be a dream sequences, but it wasn't.
The first love scene was oddly done! It was all close ups, fast edit shots of body parts. It looked like home made film done with someone's phone. The second love scene with his wife was beautifully shot from a distances and with the soft fire light was quite sensual-romantic. The third love making scene with him and the farm worker girl with the sarong hanging from the ceiling beam..
holy cow! That was the most visually sensual and erotic love making scene I've seen in any film. It was very creative and powerful. I'd give that scene 5/5 and that's for artistry and originality and because that scene fit the movie so well.
@
MijaFrost A very worthy nomination, thanks for choosing it.