Share
'Ten Canoes'
Scott Foundas
Tuesday, May 22nd 2007
-
photo: Palm Pictures
Jamie Gulpilil as Dayindi in Ten Canoes
Details:
Directed by Rolf de Heer
Palm Pictures
Opens June 1
Cinema Village
Directed by the Dutch expatriate filmmaker Rolf de Heer, this sometimes bawdy (remember: "Never trust a man with a small prick"), always beguiling work of imagination begins with a group of Aboriginal tribesmen setting out on an annual goose-hunting expedition, fashioning canoes from bark and sleeping in makeshift camps perched high in the trees. Along the way, an elder member of the tribe, Minygululu, regales his restless young companion, Dayindi—who happens to covet one of Minygululu's three wives—with a cautionary tale about another young man smitten by similar desires and the hard-gotten wisdom of being careful what you wish for. Then this story within the story within the story starts to unfold before our eyes. If the moral of Ten Canoes is familiar, the getting there is anything but. To watch this movie (shot in breathtaking widescreen by cinematographer Ian Jones) is to enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning, the likes of which I have rarely encountered in cinema outside of the African tribal films of Ousmane Sembene. And yet, as in Sembene's work, we are never lost, for as much as anything else, Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time, and language.
Recent Articles
More by Scott Foundas
John Woo's Killer Instincts Return for Red Cliff
Abridged for American consumption
Defamation Eyes the Modern Face of Anti-Semitism
Wes Anderson Brings Wes Anderson–ness to Fantastic Mr. Fox
Precious Is the Diary of a Sad Black Woman
Pushing the limits of taste, but locating the heart—and hell—of its heroine's struggle
On the Heels of Paranormal Activity, The Fourth Kind Comes Off the Weak Imitator
Site Search «
Most Popular
-
The Strangest Landlord-Tenant Relationship In Town? Stacked up in cubicles for decades, immigrants living in a Bowery tenement may have a very unusual situation.
-
The Pet-Death Business All dogs go to heaven. Yours will probably get there in an urn.
- We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?
- On Michael Jackson's Mercifully Goofy, Cheerful This Is It
-
The Secret Life of Girls On the latest blog-rock sensation's improbable, somewhat verifiable backstory
| buy, sell, trade 10,107 | musician 3,538 |
| rentals 12,927 | jobs 2,193 |
| adult entertainment 34,727 | |
| classifieds | backpage.com | Post ads for free! | |
|---|---|