\n\tIt\u2019s unclear if Hungarian filmmaker Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi was inspired by the seminal 1979 Stevie Wonder album, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, for her latest enigmatic feature, Silent Friend. But she not only could have used its title as an alternative to her own \u2014 she manages to capture the music\u2019s trippy and soothing spirit, as well as its sense of experimentation, in a movie that gradually washes over you like a warm natural fragrance.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat doesn\u2019t mean this two-and-a-half-hour arthouse triptych about man, nature, botany and brainwaves is easy to sit through, especially if you\u2019re looking for a conventional story, or perhaps any story at all. But Enyedi is a master stylist who knows how to create a certain mood, mixing visual poetry with deadpan humor, and big ideas with quotidian foibles, in a film that explores our mysterious relationship with both the green world and one another.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSilent Friend\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n
\tAn engigmatic art film that grows on you.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue:<\/strong> Venice Film Festival (Competition) \n\tPremiering in competition at Venice<\/a>, whose 82nd edition has been marked by tough, jarring dramas<\/a> and films about the sorry state of the planet<\/a>, Silent Friend conversely dishes out positive vibes and a different, more reassuring perspective about where we may be headed \u2014 just as long as we start listening to nature as much as to ourselves.<\/p>\n \n\tSet at the same German university over three time periods spanning two centuries, the plot, which is more like a sketchpad of scenes and ideas, follows a trio of characters each conducting botany experiments that test the communicative powers of nature.<\/p>\n \n\tThe modern story, which takes place during the 2020 COVID crisis, follows Tony (the great Tony Leung Chui-wai of In the Mood for Love<\/a>), a respected neuroscientist from Hong Kong who finds himself locked down on an empty campus after the pandemic hits. Unable to conduct his research, which tests the brainwaves of infants before they speak, he switches subjects to start measuring those same waves in an old gingko tree outside his laboratory.<\/p>\n \n\tThat tree, which was planted back in 1832, becomes the connective tissue literally, biologically and possibly metaphysically, between Tony and two scientists who preceded him at the same institution. One is Grete (Luna Wedler), a brilliant student who becomes the first female to integrate the university\u2019s stuffy science department at the end of the 19th century. The other is Hannes (Enzo Brumm), a dreamer of a pupil in the 1970s who takes more interest in his housemate, Gundula (Marlene Burow), than his classwork, helping her run experiments on a geranium that sits on her windowsill.<\/p>\n \n\tEnyedi shifts between the three storylines at will, sometimes spending several minutes in one only to cut to another for a few seconds and then over to the third. At first this can be a bit perplexing, especially if you\u2019re searching for a common narrative thread or for the plots to somehow thicken. But at some point you just have to go with the flow and accept that in true tripped-out fashion, the movie will be much more about the journey than the destination.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd that\u2019s okay if you\u2019re susceptible to Enyedi\u2019s particular brand of filmmaking, which she honed over features like My Twentieth Century and the 2017 Berlin Golden Bear winner On Body and Soul<\/a>. (The less remembered about The Story of My Wife<\/a>, the better.) Exquisitely shot (in this case by fellow Hungarian Gergely P\u00e0los, who switches between crisp HD, grainy 16mm color and pristine 35mm black-and-white) and layered with dense sound design, her movies somehow feel both aesthetically ephemeral and sharply crafted \u2014 a contradiction she manages to make smoothly coalesce, especially in this work.<\/p>\n
Cast: <\/strong>Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Sylvester Groth, Martin Wuttke, Johannes Hegemann, Rainer Bock, L\u00e9a Seydoux
Director, screenwriter:<\/strong> Ildik\u00f3 Enyedi
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2 hours 25 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n