Last and First Men

A futuristic movie with bare visuals, a Gregorian style chant in the background and the soothing voice of the wonderful Tilda Swinton giving the history of a neo human race on a dying earth. This is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I found it both relaxing and stimulating, whilst making you think. A thumbs up from me.

This is a beautiful art/science/philosophy installation music film by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson released after his death in 2018, from a haunting text by the British philosopher and writer Olaf Stapledon, known by his "science fiction" in the first half of the 20th-Century. It's narrated by Tilda Swinton, who conveys greatly the tone of a once and future humanity (a post-humanity, if you will). The visuals are provided mostly by brutalist Soviet concrete architecture from the former Yugoslavia.

Apparently the film is being marketed by some quarters like some sort of kind of post-apocalyptic sci-fi pic, and apparently kids are watching it with expectations of seeing the likes of Mad Max (which is a great series of films, anyway) or Ready Player One or who knows what kind of zombie crap. This is not it, and you can then laugh at their perplexed and resentful reviews giving the film 1 star. No, nope, nope. What were they sold? This is not World War Z, nor the Time Machine. Think, if of anything, of Guy Debord's films, John Berger, Soviet films, think of Paul Virilio's Bunker Archaeology, think of the visuals and soundtrack for T. S. Eliot's serious poems (not "Cats", of course), etc. Think of Cosmos or 2001: A Space Odissey, if you want. Think of a documentary. Think of a museum exhibit. Think of a manifesto for post-humanity. Think of archaeology in 2 Billion AD... but for Pete's sake, when you get into watching this film, stop thinking you are entering a McDonald's or a Chuck E. Cheese when you come in into The Met or a Guggenheim museum.

I can't fault the people who like this one OR the people who don't. The writing is wonderful, and Tilda Swinton's narration is sonorous, but the visuals really add nothing, and the pacing is painfully slow.

Visually, we do get the sense of a dead planet. We get it hammered into us shot by excruciating shot for the entire duration of the film. It's rather fatiguing.

I don't want to argue with the people who like it. If you're so taken with the story that it kept you involved, then great. The film makers could have done a lot more with it. The visuals could have told much more of a story, even with keeping the same approach. Unfortunately, for me the experience was that of a half-hour audiobook crammed into an hours worth of a film.

Is there anything more chilling that the acknowledgment of own mortality?

Rarely did the visuals match the story and music so I essentially listened to this. The score was nearly perfect and the story was quite compelling. As art, I liked it quite well. As a film, it wasn't very good. 36 hours later I'm still thinking about it.