In the Labyrinth (Canada, 1979)
Directed by Colin Low, Roman Kroitor and Hugh O'Connor
Produced and edited by Tom Daly
Is there anything in the world like this movie? Except maybe the world itself? A dizzyingly elaborate split-screen and
multi-frame production, adapted from a large-scale installation presented at Montréal's Expo '67, In the Labyrinth might remind viewers of certain Brian de Palma extravaganzas. Except that it leaves Brian de Palma’s formal affectations in the dust. In fact, it pretty well obliterates de Palma. And Abel Gance. And the Soviets, even. This is really electrifying! If part of the film's moral heft and cinematic
substance comes from the Kroitor/Low/O’ Connor triumvirate, and from
consultant Northrop Frye (!), then the final triumph is Tom Daly’s. (Let's also note Eldon Rathburn's exquisite work with the score, as per usual with him.) The cinematography is as beautiful as
cinematography can possibly be, and that beauty is always in the service of
content (the emigrants!) that is more important than the way it’s being
captured. But imagine having to put all of this stuff together! (See Gary Evans, 1991, for the full and fascinating story behind this production.) In the end it is in the assembly and juxtaposition of images that this reaches its really sublime, humanistic heights.
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| Tom Daly |
And to think that those heights are due to a technical innovation, one that could very well have ended up a mere technical stunt. With those five (or
four, or three, two, or one) screens Daly can do pretty well anything, and he actually does pretty well everything. He selects and isolates, attaining a remarkable penetration and intensity as he does so. Alternatively, when multiplying images he renders entire scenes in an instant, entire sequences in a few seconds. In doing so he gets around to
illustrating most all of Sergei Eisenstein’s famous and justly celebrated methods of montage, but with more fairness and
feeling than Eisenstein was ever able to muster. (Always honouring S.E.'s sincere early convictions, his superbly problematical famous films, as well as the quite simply wonderful Old and
New.) Daly models an
unprecedented kind of intellectual, even mythical montage as he dissolves from those intensities and simultaneities, from one location, from one idea to
another. More, he presents more
than one idea in tandem, resulting either in a deep but possibly un-interrogated emotional fullness, or, if
we analyze, a full philosophical totality. Virtuosity, yes, but how quietly! And how lovingly. If the technique is awe-inspiring, then the viewer is still, finally left with faces, with individuals and individual lives that actually add up to the Brotherhood of Man.
In the end you might say that this is what an adult film looks like; every technical proficiency, an absolute adequacy, all in the glad and glorious service of someone and something else. It is stirring and reproving to note that there’s not an ounce of ego in this piece. Except for the thought that might occur to the discerning, humbled, grateful viewer. These are the world’s greatest filmmakers.
In the end you might say that this is what an adult film looks like; every technical proficiency, an absolute adequacy, all in the glad and glorious service of someone and something else. It is stirring and reproving to note that there’s not an ounce of ego in this piece. Except for the thought that might occur to the discerning, humbled, grateful viewer. These are the world’s greatest filmmakers.
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| Colin Low |
