77: A Tale of the Wind (a.k.a. Une histoire de vent – Original French title)

            Classifying Joris Ivens’ A Tale of the Wind (1988) is not an easy task.  It is a documentary which seems to include scripted scenes of fiction and it openly acknowledges the challenges to its own production.  Indeed some of its best scenes come when everything that has been planned suddenly falls to pieces.  More than anything, it functions as a cinematic journal of its maker, Ivens.  Making no secret of his failing health the 90 year old documentarian sets out to make a film about something that cannot be seen.  With the challenge of filming the wind itself set before him, he drags cameras and crews around the world.

            This is a visually remarkable film, and the ways by which Ivens achieves his odd task are often both creative and stunning, particularly in the scenes in which the process of achieving them accompanies the final product.  Ivens himself was a remarkable man.  He turned to filmmaking at the young age of thirteen, and fought for his native Holland in the First World War.  During his long career he made films for the soviet government, documented the Spanish Civil War, and chronicled Roosevelt’s New Deal.  Footage from several of his early films is peppered throughout A Tale of the Wind, and seems to confirm Ivens seen-it-all demeanor.  He is a quite man in his old age, with long white hair blown over tired eyes.  His ideas are loud enough that he never raises his voice, except at the wind itself.

            His crew follows him to China, where legends of dragons accompany many myths about the winds.  He describes his own asthma as an inability to draw enough wind, and though the metaphor is overplayed by the film’s conclusion, it does serve to convey just how personal this project was to him.  Did he know it would be his epitaph?  He seems to.  Ivens’ preoccupation with filming the Terracotta Warriors, the eternal guardians of the tomb of an ancient emperor, convey an acceptance of death.

            Not every segment of A Tale of the Wind works, particularly the oddly repetitive appearance of a jester-esque figure in traditional Chinese opera makeup, but When Ivens quietly uses his camera to display the achievements of the human race juxtaposed with the forces of nature it can be breathtaking.  I was momentarily transfixed by a wide shot of satellites, used for charting solar winds, moving in unison against the backdrop of the sunset.  This isn’t the most engaging of films on the whole, and I never felt fully connected to Ivens’ odd determination, but as a series of vignettes portraying the human capacity to achieve even the strangest of things it does have some strong moments.

Language: French/Dutch/Mandarin

Runtime: 80 Minutes

Available @Youtube.com

Grade: 2 Hats Off