You will never see and think of sand the same way again.
Forget Gidget and Frankie Avalon when it comes to images of the beach. Set aside Chubby Checker and the gang doing the Twist down the sand outside Malibu. Once you watch Woman in the Dunes you will have a completely different appreciation for the tactile qualities of sand and loneliness. A true masterpiece in world cinema, this moody modern masterpiece is based on Kobo Abe's existential novel and once viewed will leave you reeling for days, if not years.
I first caught this piece back when I was page working for the Santa Ana Public Library. Roger was the media librarian, a British ex-pat, a man on a mission, a handsome, ruddy guy bound and determined to make the best of his scene there in SoCal by planting the finest films and music his department could afford in that funky county seat library. It was quite a chore, but on his watch we saw the collection blossom from a mere handful of tired theatrical, technical and non-fiction movies to a spread of film that would have made a university film librarian blush. We not only had current cutting edge movies on hand to borrow, but Roger, with an eye for the finest art house videos money could buy, stocked our somewhat frumpy city library with some of the most memorable movies ever made, including such masterpieces as Woman in the Dunes.
I don't know why it took me so long to catch it again. I know that I had it in my hands once or twice while I lived and worked in Seattle. No matter, I stumbled upon it the other day, cruising the shelves of Gig Harbor's Peninsula branch. It was a true flight back in time holding that movie again. I can still remember the apartment I lived during those somewhat wild student days, not so much ones of bookish poverty but rather ones filled with a sort of poor, edgy, high quality adventure. Back in those days we were hot for Ren Faire, for home brewing, for punk and ska and old English ballads on old scratchy vinyl. My pals and I managed to make every Friday night a dinner, libations and movie night, not hard to do on the cheap with the cache of films that Roger bought.
The grandest thing about cozying up to this film today after twenty years is that the print copy has improved. It might have been the years that clouded the frames. I had images of that movie burned in my brain from my one and only viewing and was anxious to see it again, to see if it was as grand as I remembered it being. For years I could see the falling, shifting sands, hear the plantive plea of the widow begging the bug hunter to stay. I could feel the presence, the weight of that wet sand cascading down around them as the lovers rutted in the pit. It was a wild, scratchy image of a movie in my mind, somewhat like the after effects of a wild and torrid bit of lovemaking on the beach in the moonlight on a breezy fall night. It was a powerful film back then, and today, while the credits rolled, I once again felt that tidal wave of world cinema satisfaction.
Roger, I owe you, man. If the truth be known what I wanted to be more than a Children's Librarian was a Media Librarian, just like you. Someday, maybe, I'll get that chance. In the meantime know that you blazed a mean trail to follow, and that I look forward to someday being able turn on an awful lot of young and old minds alike to high quality films, just like you did with me and the rest of Santa Ana's film watching faithful.
Action!
Review: Woman in the Dunes:
http://www.allmovie.com/work/woman-in-the-dunes-55073/review
I first caught this piece back when I was page working for the Santa Ana Public Library. Roger was the media librarian, a British ex-pat, a man on a mission, a handsome, ruddy guy bound and determined to make the best of his scene there in SoCal by planting the finest films and music his department could afford in that funky county seat library. It was quite a chore, but on his watch we saw the collection blossom from a mere handful of tired theatrical, technical and non-fiction movies to a spread of film that would have made a university film librarian blush. We not only had current cutting edge movies on hand to borrow, but Roger, with an eye for the finest art house videos money could buy, stocked our somewhat frumpy city library with some of the most memorable movies ever made, including such masterpieces as Woman in the Dunes.
I don't know why it took me so long to catch it again. I know that I had it in my hands once or twice while I lived and worked in Seattle. No matter, I stumbled upon it the other day, cruising the shelves of Gig Harbor's Peninsula branch. It was a true flight back in time holding that movie again. I can still remember the apartment I lived during those somewhat wild student days, not so much ones of bookish poverty but rather ones filled with a sort of poor, edgy, high quality adventure. Back in those days we were hot for Ren Faire, for home brewing, for punk and ska and old English ballads on old scratchy vinyl. My pals and I managed to make every Friday night a dinner, libations and movie night, not hard to do on the cheap with the cache of films that Roger bought.
The grandest thing about cozying up to this film today after twenty years is that the print copy has improved. It might have been the years that clouded the frames. I had images of that movie burned in my brain from my one and only viewing and was anxious to see it again, to see if it was as grand as I remembered it being. For years I could see the falling, shifting sands, hear the plantive plea of the widow begging the bug hunter to stay. I could feel the presence, the weight of that wet sand cascading down around them as the lovers rutted in the pit. It was a wild, scratchy image of a movie in my mind, somewhat like the after effects of a wild and torrid bit of lovemaking on the beach in the moonlight on a breezy fall night. It was a powerful film back then, and today, while the credits rolled, I once again felt that tidal wave of world cinema satisfaction.
Roger, I owe you, man. If the truth be known what I wanted to be more than a Children's Librarian was a Media Librarian, just like you. Someday, maybe, I'll get that chance. In the meantime know that you blazed a mean trail to follow, and that I look forward to someday being able turn on an awful lot of young and old minds alike to high quality films, just like you did with me and the rest of Santa Ana's film watching faithful.
Action!
Review: Woman in the Dunes:
http://www.allmovie.com/work/woman-in-the-dunes-55073/review
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