tj-77

Near the end of the film, the Angel talks to the Acrobat in the bar where Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are playing in the background. It's a monologue that every guy in the Western world should memorize and use on a woman. (She'll never be the wiser, just like Danny DeVito's girlfriend in "Twins," who doesn't know that all his love-lines are just quotes from old Rock'n'Roll songs.) The sincerity and earnestness that Bruno Ganz brings to the delivery of the lines should make every man envious and every woman putty.

"Glas" is presented in film schools as an exemplar of what is known as a "process documentary." There's no voice-over to either guide or otherwise influence the viewer. The film is simply shot-after-shot of glass-making. It might have been underwritten by the Dutch bottle industry, because that seems to be its main thrust: the manufacture of bottles. Lotsa shots of mechanization, from wide-shots to mediums to macro close-ups. This film is usually shown as an intended primer for aspiring cinematographers: the exposures and lighting presented particular challenges to the DP. One curious artifact: At the end of the film, there's a credit for someone named, "Ouim Ouenders." Given the Dutch translation/ transposition, vis-a-vis spelling, who, exactly, is that guy? Someone we all might otherwise know?