Tejút

As one struggles to get to grips with this movie, one suddenly realises that his is the point of the movie; you cannot really get to grips with it. It is a koan, an exercise in demonstrating the inadequacy of reason. 10 puzzling, statically shot tableaux later an absolute calm has descended. That is the beauty of the movie.

What follows is a description of my experience of 2 of the scenes, so please read after the movie if you haven't seen it and want to come at it fresh. The first scene sets the atmosphere of confusion, in the dark there's what looks like a sliver of a river, and a flickering flame in the distance, I was wondering if this was Styx and some watchfire in Hell, as the light increases it's clear there's a wind turbine on a lake (technology and alienation also seems a theme) ominously chopping at the air (sound design is very important in this movie). There's also a meta layer to this fugue of reason, for example you see a couple of cyclists bunny-hopping up and down a rocky mound, a particularly awkward way to navigate an inscrutable surface, they are then bemused by a tree that is spontaneously combusting and contradicting the maxim that there is no smoke without fire.

The link to the title appears to come most directly in the last scene of the movie, where the lights of an industrial complex resemble the Milky Way.

For the first couple of minutes, I hoped that what I was seeing was just an appetizer - a very slow intro to make the main body of the movie more interesting or to make a contrast. It was the best part of the movie, since after the third scene I had to realize that this was indeed the main body of the movie, without any visible story, point or order.

I only gave 2 points because the photography is fine, so the experience is like you would be in a photo exhibition with big prints and you would watch each of them for 7-8 minutes (but you can't walk and set the time you want to spend at a photo*). And this is why I would choose Milky Way as a screen-saver - if you watch it randomly for a minute, you may even like it. It could also be useful in a Chill Out party where you are not forced to watch it for 83 minutes (and/or in silence), but it is not a piece to be shown in cinemas.

I am sure, some people will say "C'mon, you just didn't get the point" or "Why should anything happen in a movie?" but I think even they wouldn't deny that if someone would just sit beneath the canvas instead of a chair in the auditorium and watch the audience nuzzling and trying to survive the movie, would have at least the same strength of experience or even a more unique one.

The director, Flieglauf Benedek said in an interview that this meant to be an experimental movie, so he was surprised that it won a prize in Locarno. My problem is, that I cannot see experimental (novel) things - there are good movies that can work without conversations and with very few cuts like "Unser Taglich Brot" or "Hukkle" (also photographed by Poharnok Gergely) but this one definitely cannot.

In Hollywood, filmmakers often try to hide the movie's emptiness by using an overdose of action and effects, Milky Way tries to do the same hiding by eliminating these but the result remains the same.

*After writing this comment I've read that they actually are making an exhibition based of the movie.

As the note on the cover says, it is an "ambient film". And for some people this phrase says it all.

The movie presents itself as a set of scenes with no connection between them. The camera is static, like the eye of a meditative observer. Some events happen in front of it. If your mind is calm enough to let you follow these events, it will be just blown.

See, the scenes look at first like something trivial and ordinary, but as you watch them and you think about them, you start to feel like there should be some hidden meaning. What are these people doing? What just happened? What. The. Hell. Was. That?! But every time you think you finally got an idea, you realize that it's a total miss, as it explains nothing.

You notice a dramatic shift of your perception. You get this weird feeling as if the events are being orchestrated by some powerful force, yet you have not a feeble clue as to what it's plan might be. All you can do is pay attention and behold the weirdness of it all.

There's no final meaning that will permanently close the case. There's no judgement imposed by the author. There is only a pure enigmatic beauty that will haunt you for as long as you will be able to remember this movie.

Truly, a masterpiece, especially in this specific area.