THE year 2009 is just a week old, and I have already found a contender for the top-10 list I expect to compile come December.
It is “Silent Light,” and the director is Carlos Reygadas, whose first two features, “Japon”and “Battle in Heaven,” wowed difficult-to-please critics, including this one. So it means something when I say “Silent Light,” his third feature, is his most mature work yet.
“Japon” features explicit octogenarian sex and “Battle in Heaven” highlights shots of a teen – a general’s daughter, no less – orally pleasing a fat, middle-age gentleman. If you’re looking for a kindred scene in “Silent Light,” you won’t find it.
It is as if Reygadas has the confidence to put aside shock and rely on more basic conventions, such as the gorgeous visions of bucolic splendor that open and close “Silent Light.”
The setting is a rural Mennonite community in northern Mexico, a place where Plautdietsch, an archaic form of German, is still spoken.
Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr) is a farmer with seven young children and a loving wife, Esther (Mariam Toews). Trouble is, Johan has become involved with Marianne (Maria Pankratz), a Mennonite waitress.
Not wishing to lie to his wife, the middle-age farmer admits having an affair. The result: Three people struggling with their innermost feelings.
“I simply made a mistake with Esther, and now I have to fix it,” Johan reasons.
As is his custom, Reygadasuses a mostly nonprofessional cast; and, as expected, he draws remarkably realistic performances.
But the film’s strongest point is Alexis Zabe’s beautiful cinematography, from the wonders of nature to a family outing in a swimming hole to the awesome scene set in a rainy cornfield.
A lengthy and heart-tugging funeral sequence is indebted to “Ordet” (1954), by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer.
With “Silent Light,” Reygadas takes his place among the leading directors working today.
SILENT LIGHT
The farmer’s wife.
In Plautdietsch, with English subtitles. Running time: 136 minutes. Not rated (mature content). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.