Saturday, October 5, 2013

Till Human Voices Wake Us



Slow and Dreary, but worthwhile!
Written and directed by award-winning Australian filmmaker Michael Petroni (Tresspasses, Addicted), Till Human Voices Wake Us is a slow, dreary, and fascinating mystery starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter, who deliver dazzling performances as always. It's a supernatural romance that tells the story of a psychologist (Pearce), who, upon returning to his childhood home to bury his dead father, encounters a mysterious woman (Carter), who evokes memories of a long-lost love.

Fair warning: Till Human Voices Wake Us is not a good choice for people who prefer films that move quickly or make a lot of noise. So restrained is this Australian import that it flirts with outright sluggishness. But a close reading reveals that its reticence is more a charm than a disorder. Petroni's script draws from the poetry of T.S. Eliot, particularly "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The movie title comes from that poem; it is a fragment of a line that ends "and we drown." Petroni is enthralled...

Elegiac and beautiful
It is almost impossible to describe the immersive feeling you get from this movie. Too slow? plodding? Not at all. If you don't have the patience to sit and allow the rain, the stars, and the moonlight in this movie to wash over you you probably won't get the ending anyway. This movie is for people with poetry in their soul and who can spend an evening lying on the grass watching the stars. I waited 2 years for this to release and it was worth every moment.

Beautiful, Bitter-Sweet Memories of Childhood:
'Till human voices wake us, and we drown.' This film's title comes from TS Eliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' which the heroine of the film loves to read. Like Eliot's poem, 'Till Human Voices Wake Us,' small Australian film is moody and intelligent though too slow for some people.

And very romantic. If you consider yourself a cynical person, don't watch this. In the summer of small village in Austlaria, a 15-year-old boy Sam comes back from the school. He meets Silvy again after long years, who is now experiencing a complete change into womanhood. They spend quiet and blissful time together in the wood, or by the river, like two innocent kids would. Then, something happens and Silvy is gone forever.

Cue to 20 years later. Now grown-up Sam (Guy Pearce) , a psychiatrist in Melboune University, receives a note, which brings him back to the village after 20 years. In this place full of bitter memories, he meets a woman Ruby (Helena Bonham...

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