Fata MorganaThe term "Fata Morgana" is derived from the Italian name for the witch from Arthurian legend, Morgan le Fay. It is also a name for a kind of mirage, an illusion and trick of the light which distort objects in the distance, creating the visual impression of something stacked upon itself, something that is not there. In Werner Herzog's Fata Morgana, we are bewitched with the story of the beginning of the universe, in part from the Popul Vuh--the Mayan creation myth--and others conceived independently to craft this strange tale of a world that is both foreign and unmistakably our own.
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To describe Fata Morgana as a documentary would not be entirely accurate, even though it does subscribe to many of the same tropes of that genre. For instance, much of what we see is taken from filming places around Cameroon in Africa, where the world is far removed from our own corner of the first world. The landscape is surrounded in desert, with the carcasses of animals laying out in the sun to mummify. One lizard wrangler discusses the monitor he is displaying, and describes the harsh lifestyle the creature lives in and how it survives. Another animal specialist discusses the sea turtle kept in captivity, and asks us to consider its physical qualities. All of these elements would feel quite at home if we were discussing nature itself; but we are discussing more than nature...we are connecting these images to the divine story of the birth of our universe, told through cryptic verse. The film has more of a narrative structure than a traditional documentary, even if the narrative is abstract. The story is roughly split into three acts--Creation, Paradise, and The Golden Age--although it is very much open to interpretation what constitutes these concepts. To look upon the "Paradise" described, many might view the land to be a harsh and barren one; but this is subject to the viewer, and what we wish to interpret in these images. We are told that the "eyes of God watch all"; in effect, the camera is God, viewing and archiving the footage in the third world paradise, and as a result, we are also in the position of a "God", watching this world--our world--unfold in the lens.
Fata Morgana is not named after a mythical sorceress for no reason; the film casts a spell upon the viewer, intoxicating us with vistas that resemble something otherworldly, all set to a hypnotic musical score, including a few selections by Leonard Cohen and his brand of poetic song, as well as other, more experimental musicians. The feel of Fata Morgana has much to do with the trance-like inducement of the score, but also with the long tracking shots of the desert and surroundings. The long vistas of the world not-quite-described by the narration has much to do with fostering that sense of tone which is what Fata Morgana is really all about. And to reinforce the title itself, numerous shots of out of focus, far off objects receive that illusory effect of the mirage from which the film takes its title. For all the illusion, there is very little, if any, trickery or alteration of the footage shot--it is what it is in its natural form, although the editing and cinematography is such that the intention is far removed from the actual subject matter. At times, intense close-ups of muddy dunes look as much like a far off shot of the landscape from an airplane, high above the ground; it is foreign without context. There is a message to Fata Morgana, an intimation about the world we live in and how we relate to it. This isn't to say that because the world of Fata Morgana is so unusual that we are out of touch, but that the way we see the world and experience it is open to interpretation, and our own view is but one side of a multifaceted gemstone, one which should we attempt to view from a different angle, will give us a new perspective. Many people around the world believe in some basic kind of creation myth, and many people live their lives in different conditions than our own. Seeing Fata Morgana should remind us that we are all part of the same world which only looks and sounds strange because we do not understand it beyond our scope of vision. The illusion of both divine and worldly knowledge is one which we always feel we see on the horizon, and is one we are all perpetually bewitched into pursuing.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex story about creation and the world told through the abstract medium of a documentary-styled film, more insistent upon tone to convey its message than a boring checklist visual essay.
Fata Morgana is not named after a mythical sorceress for no reason; the film casts a spell upon the viewer, intoxicating us with vistas that resemble something otherworldly, all set to a hypnotic musical score, including a few selections by Leonard Cohen and his brand of poetic song, as well as other, more experimental musicians. The feel of Fata Morgana has much to do with the trance-like inducement of the score, but also with the long tracking shots of the desert and surroundings. The long vistas of the world not-quite-described by the narration has much to do with fostering that sense of tone which is what Fata Morgana is really all about. And to reinforce the title itself, numerous shots of out of focus, far off objects receive that illusory effect of the mirage from which the film takes its title. For all the illusion, there is very little, if any, trickery or alteration of the footage shot--it is what it is in its natural form, although the editing and cinematography is such that the intention is far removed from the actual subject matter. At times, intense close-ups of muddy dunes look as much like a far off shot of the landscape from an airplane, high above the ground; it is foreign without context. There is a message to Fata Morgana, an intimation about the world we live in and how we relate to it. This isn't to say that because the world of Fata Morgana is so unusual that we are out of touch, but that the way we see the world and experience it is open to interpretation, and our own view is but one side of a multifaceted gemstone, one which should we attempt to view from a different angle, will give us a new perspective. Many people around the world believe in some basic kind of creation myth, and many people live their lives in different conditions than our own. Seeing Fata Morgana should remind us that we are all part of the same world which only looks and sounds strange because we do not understand it beyond our scope of vision. The illusion of both divine and worldly knowledge is one which we always feel we see on the horizon, and is one we are all perpetually bewitched into pursuing.
Recommended for: Fans of a complex story about creation and the world told through the abstract medium of a documentary-styled film, more insistent upon tone to convey its message than a boring checklist visual essay.