I'm struggling to compose notes on TRAIN OF SHADOWS, a Jose Luis Guerin film that purports to be many things that it isn't, which is just one of the reasons i am so fond of it.
TRAIN takes the form of an examination into the disappearance of filmmaker Gerard Fleury, who vanished while working on a film in 1930.
Guerin explores the place that this happened by way of both new and old footage. The old footage turns out to be shot by Guerin himself, though it is shaped and cloaked as if it were found footage made by Fleury.
Hoping to cleanse my palate, I turn on tonight's Rock Center with Brian Williams, an event built around an expose of the president's war /situation room, which , in turn, was built around the anniversary of Bin Laden's death/capture.
It is funny to pretend that the exciting war room narrative, constructed for tonight's newsmagazine episode, is anything but smart political manifestation. I don't believe a word of it.
I'm keeping my liberal ID card despite clearly seeing the news for what it is: not news at all but fabrication. A shabby michael bay ish production on a budget.
Both the TV Show and the movie make the decision to highlight certain angles and convergences that have occurred as " events " and 'Important moments." Both use narrative and performance built on the mystique of the real that we will never know. Only Guerin's film is in on the joke.
i wonder if this story merited the same import before it became altered by an anniversary. It doesn't matter.
