If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed
As a writer of the infamous and literally overwhelmingly excellent experience that ‘Babel’ managed to achieve, as well as writing ’21 Grams’ – a work that explored why a human body was lighter in weight after death. The name of Guillermo Arriaga is unquestionably a mark of considerable quality.
With the release on DVD of ‘The Burning Plain’, the writer is also the director and the film gradually reveals once again some patiently well-executed and rather thoughtful cinematic nuggets for consideration.
Instead of directly dividing the film into past and present, the film is directed on a continuous narrative throughout, giving over to the idea that characters are merely living in different locations at the same time.
However, as the direction is so assured then much like the truly incredible ‘Babel’, the end of the story similarly gives serious weight to the meaning of a somewhat abstract start.
Trusting that inevitably the writer and director Mr. Arriaga will conclude with answers to provocative questions raised from the initial event are not really a problem.
Arriaga merely seems to unfold a tragic story back to front, and therefore manages to direct a rather addictive film that is highly recommended, if only because like ‘Babel’, the end is simply not so concluded, but the film suggests also that the story is only one story from an infinite number.
