Under the Milky Way,” a tune by the Church, a forgotten band that
had a few hits in the late 1980s, captures the mood and atmosphere of
Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light. The setting for the movie is a
place that is somewhere “under the Milky Way.” However, the place or
planet under the glittering stellar disk does not look or feel like our
home, Earth, but another world altogether. The main reason for this
otherworldliness is that the people at the center of the drama are
members of a German-speaking Mennonite community in northern Mexico.
Their German language enstranges the geography, Mexico, and vice versa.
A Central European language is naturally associated with long winters,
black forests, thick and bleak clouds—and not with a sunny world
of rolling hills and semitropical vegetation. Also, the habits, dress,
and codes of the Mennonites are completely disconnected from the usual
habits, dress, and codes of Mexico.
The result of this disconnection and enstranging is the appearance
of a culture that seems totally alien. We see the farmer and his
family, the farmer and his lover, the farmer and his friends in the
community not with the proximity of human life, but with the cosmic
distance of living and thinking creatures that have developed their
language and customs on the surface of another planet and in the light
of another star. The only special effect in this slow and carefully
composed work of science fiction is produced by focus pulls. Flesh,
flowers, folds in clothes move from blurry to terrific detail. The
movement from one extreme (indistinct) to the other (very distinct) is
a form of space travel—from nebulous clouds to the pores and
craters on a single moon. Silent Light is one of the greatest
films of this decade. 
Nice intro and conclusion paragraphs, Mudede, if a little tedious.
But, UH-OH, where is the review? Where is some mote of information about the movie aside from a cast summary and the baffling “one of the greatest films of this decade”?
Cliff’s Notes
“Speaking German in Mexico is weird. Space travel! This is one of the greatest film of the decade.”
Charles happens to be right about this film being that good.
However if you’re looking for a less poetic response you can read a review here:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/mov…
Estrangement, Mr. Muede. Enstraging is something you just made up. I love “Under The Milky Way” though.
The Church, forgotten?! No f’en way!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_…)
Enstranged, not estranged. Enstranged is a neologism that approximates the Russian word “ostranenie,” which means “making it strange,” or to defamiliarize something that has been smothered by habit. The Russian Formalists, and Victor Shklovsky specifically, argued that enstrangement is what distinguished poetic language from everyday language.
Mudede, you’re so fucking enstrange.
Even if he made it up, “enstrange” works well, and Mudede’s use of it here is the best thing about the review, which is, yes, missing the stuff you want a reviewer to tell you so you can decide if it is a movie you want to go see. He clearly didn’t mean to write “estrange”.
Excellent review Mr. Mudede. Serious. Regardless of your use of *one word*. Also, I appreciate how, in the current ‘Stranger Suggests’ you supply the literal description of the events in the film, for those who can’t appreciate the vastly more revealing review posted here that explores the content and potential meaning/value of the film. Funny/lame that.
Excellent review Mr. Mudede. Serious. Regardless of your use of *one word*. Also, I appreciate how, in the current ‘Stranger Suggests’ you supply the literal description of the events in the film, for those who can’t appreciate the vastly more revealing review posted here that explores the content and potential meaning/value of the film. Funny/lame that.