Melancholian 3 huonetta . The Three Rooms of Melancholia

Duration: 01:25:00 This poetic and very sophisticated documentary is divided into three chapters, in three Rooms. In each of them, the atmosphere is determined by one predominant emotion. With very few words but with lots of eloquent cinematic means, the film speaks about basic emotional and mental...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Honkasalo, Pirjo
Institution:Open Society Archives at Central European University
Language:English
Finnish
Published: Pervila, Kristina 2004
Finland
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:a08d503d-f498-45e6-a147-d42029576063
Description
Summary:Duration: 01:25:00 This poetic and very sophisticated documentary is divided into three chapters, in three Rooms. In each of them, the atmosphere is determined by one predominant emotion. With very few words but with lots of eloquent cinematic means, the film speaks about basic emotional and mental states. In the first Room, we follow young boys, obedient cadets at a military school in St. Petersburg. These children of thirteen or fourteen are not here by choice: most of them come from dysfunctional families. Just by observing their morning rituals, the school's rigid discipline and their way of interacting, one gets a notion of their enormous solitude. One of the boys shifts the story to the second Room – Breathing – where we witness the doomed lives of the people of Grozny. The last Room – Remembering – crosses the Chechen border into the neighbouring province of Ingushetia, where people fight out their own tragedy. With a keen eye for detail, especially human faces, and with precise timing, the director successfully creates remarkable, emotionally loaded scenes. By combining vocals from the Orthodox Church with folk and classical music, together with pure sounds from nature, the film becomes uplifting and multilayered.
Published:2004