albertochimal

This early dutch short film will confuse everyone who thinks cinema is a medium only fit to tell stories. Predating some of the most interesting --and lyrical-- documentaries of recent times, devoid of spoken words or any logical discourse, "Regen" offers a few, brief impressions of a rainy afternoon in Amsterdam; they do not form a sequence, they do not tell anything, but they definitely convey a sense of melancholy and quietness. If a conventional movie is the equivalent of a novel, or a short story, this should be regarded as a poem: it is concerned not with what's next, but with what's there, with perceptions of things.

Fans of Ron Fricke's "Baraka", Godfrey Reggio's "Powaqqatsi", or Peter Greenaway's "Prospero's Books", should try to find this relatively unknown film. The poetry of its images, underlined by its beautiful score, is truly memorable.

This adaptation of the original play by Juan-Claude Carriere, which was three hours longer (and was in turn the adaptation of the classic poem, which is 15 times the size of the Bible!) will be, for many, the only version they will ever know of the Mahabharata. But rest assured, the essential is all here: all the wisdom, passion and emotion of one of the three or four truly immortal works of literature. This should not be viewed as a feature film, but as the filming of a theater play. Then you will be able to appreciate better the great work of almost every actor and actress, and the sheer boldness of their performance and the director's vision. A clue is the great variety of nationalities and accents: the Mahabharata is a literary work that belongs to all of us.