All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Once in a while, a film comes along that is inspiring and an example of fine story telling. All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt is not one of them. While it runs a tad over 90 minutes it seems a lot longer. I saw it at the Melbourne International Film Festival where we were invited by the emcee to 'let it wash over you'. Goodness me. I had to work hard to not drown in the many, many shots that seemed to last forever, and which were in semi darkness. Largely unhampered by a coherent script or storyline, this movie had a lovely soundscape of bugs chirruping, raIn and storms, but for me that was it. Once your mind is overcome with trying to figure out what is happening and switches to 'How long has this to go?' mode, all is lost. A number of people left, some quite early, and many more didn't wait for the director's talk at the end. Needless to say I was one of them. A movie should be able to stand on its own legs and not need explanation. Life's too short.

I just couldn't for the life of me understand why the director would choose to shoot most, if not all, scenes in such a close up fashion. And then have that very annoying cricket sound in the background of almost all the scenes. It was soooooo irritating. Then you have scenes where no word is spoken for so long, you thought the movie had ended. Then you had the non-lineal approach which just made things worse. Half the time you don't know what you are watching because of the useless close ups and then half the time, you didn't know what's going on because no one is saying anything. Ridiculous.

Great art house film using mosaics, clippings, and expressionism to display the decade span of a girl/woman and significant moments, people, and place that shape her. Beautifully shot, gorgeous color and cinematography. The film does not have much dialogue like most movies. Many silent moments such as displays of affection, receiving, and listening, the film does a great job at zooming into moments. The usage of space in the span of time the movie covers is excellent. It could be seen as more of an art house film even by playing with the technique of classic silent films, capturing scenes and movement.

Due to it not being very line heavy, it is hard to tell the personal stories of the characters and is more about the essence of their local micro world/community and how it lives through them as a whole.

Just quietly, I loved this film, intimate, slow and immersive, this film tells the lives of a family of Southern women through close ups of their bodies and the landscape they inhabit. There is almost no traditional narratives, but through a sequence of images women learn and grow from each other and the men and the landscape around them, they fish, dig in the earth, fall in love, give birth and raise children, all to the sound of falling in rain, the rhythms of the earth and relationships growing deeper. One qualification, it needs to be seen in the cinema and as the audience behind me said 'it just lowers your pulse rate'

The experience of watching this is like watching an art gallery installation. In a museum, maybe this would work, you sit down for a bit, get immersed in a rich environment, and then move on to see other artworks.

As a cinematic film, it is like watching paint dry. Cannot get invested in the characters or the development. There is a rich story here and that is what is so frustrating. The film is well-made in that it does very well in its shots, cinematography and setting but then it fails miserably in narrative and development.

I have to think this comes down to a terrible script, but cannot be sure.

Either way, it is unwatchable and does not really deserve to be considered for any awards.