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I love the beginning of the film that slowly drifts into tranquillity in beautiful film imagery and music: The three ships arriving in view from greenery land where the sun captures the light in shadow from the sky: The unusual dance movements and playfulness of the Native Americans' -'inquisitive and gentle like deer' -it all intrigued and captured my attention:

"They are gentle, loving, faithful, lacking in guile and trickery. "The words denoting, 'lying, envy, slander and forgiveness' -have never been heard: "They have no sense of possession. " 'Real' -is what I thought was a dream."

And yet, in a dreamlike quality and tale, this is how the story unfolds -but how very different this film would have been in mood without the haunting and lovely musical score: from a long journey to form a new settlement into a colony among Native Americans'?

The words are often spoken in quietly voiced, and imagined thoughts -in confrontation, in harmonisation to communicate in division of languages between two very different cultures from ancestral nations:

There are no horrors to witness to unsettle the viewer in alarming terror: but there are hardships, hunger, fighting and poor discipline, and a constant threat in fear from the natives to be conquered, to be colonized in control of their freedom?

I like the eventual pageant meeting at the Royal Court with King James and the daughter of Chief Powhatan: 'Pocahontas!' -the girl, hypnotic to mesmerising beauty to Captain John Smith -and to the camera lens itself!

The beautiful filming and music drifts and lingers along in 172 mins of viewing time -and a piano concerto by Mozart ( no.23 ) is prominent throughout to enhance a sadness of a love story that I had not mentioned -but in a longing desire that the film seems intent to convey!

Directed by Terrence Malick Music by James Horner Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki Starring Q'orianka Kilcher, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg

I saw the film in the cinema at the Tavistock Wharf ( Devon ) on Thursday, 30th March 2006 ( I still have the box office ticket! ) : An afternoon viewing at 2.00pm that drifted into an early evening visit to the 'Tavistock Inn' -in a reflective mood to engage my imagination and enchantment -with my thoughts, not so very far removed from 'The New World' in beauty of this film!

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. Magic comes in all sorts of ways -and pleasantly unexpected sometimes - and in disguise, but it certainly comes in abundance in this remarkable film....

And magic is the key: the fascination of wonderful surprise...

Sometimes the film reminds me of 'The Double Life of Veronique' - with strange, visual focus and a combination of colours of red, green, and orange -and had drawn me to watch a film that I had not previously seen: namely, 'The Shape of Water:' And sometimes, the film reminds me of the genius and silent humour of Jacques Tati!

The film is strong in storytelling of first class observation: It is so unusual, like a sideways glance of life. Visually stunning -always with attention to detail: the spyglass, the mystery of neighbourhood: the loneliness of lost souls in a distant watch in a search to connect the invisible threads of life in a Zen like quality.

Expect the unexpected and be surprised in a magical film of beauty; an outstanding achievement -and funny too: the film connects in answer to all of its imaginary and mysteries ....

....after I had seen this remarkable film, I expressed a thought to my companion to say that I think I may have unravelled the riddle of the story ....we were traveling on a tube train from a London cinema to a local pub to celebrate a friend's leaving party from work ....

Throughout the film, I was intrigued -spellbound by the inventiveness of the motion picture; inspired to the haunting music; puzzled by the mysterious link to the puppeteer....there were striking images to enlighten my imagination -oozing in my taste for an art house filming.

.....as I am writing, I am experiencing the deja vu feeling...I go back to my first thought after viewing the film: I recalled saying to my dear friend that if we picked-up on the story at middle ( -rather than at the beginning of the film, ) I would say that the tale of The Double Life of Veronique evolved here, from the puppeteer himself, who had written the very story in the first place!

The Double Life of Veronique intrigues me to this day as it did a long time ago after that I had seen the film: And I still have a collective thought of collage images -but does it all make sense now in my kaleidoscopic memory of beautiful colours: I truly don't know?

I have just telephoned my friend -the very lady who accompanied me to the cinema in the first place- we have reminisced in the magic and mystery of the film: 'Shall we meet again to see the film -on DVD- and who has a copy, me dear...'

'Krzysztof Kieslowski' writes, "people are linked to each other by invisible threads.... "they experience loneliness.... " -Krzysztof Kieslowski was the great film director and screen writer from Poland ( 1941 -1996 ).' I highly recommend if you like the sentiments that I took delight to express.... * Here is a quote from the film director, extended from my text above:

"At a meeting just outside Paris, a fifteen-year-old girl came up to me and said that she'd been to see 'The double life of Véronique'. She'd gone once, twice, three times and only wanted to say one thing really - that she has realized that there is such a thing as a soul. She hadn't known before, but now she knew that the soul did exist. There's something very beautiful in that. It was worth making 'Véronique' for that girl. It was worth working for a year, sacrificing all that money, energy, time, patience, torturing yourself, killing yourself, taking thousands of decisions, so that one young girl in Paris should realize that there is such a thing as a soul. It's worth it." -Krzysztof Kieslowski.