Director​ ​Study

Rajarshi​ ​Sarkar

Carlos​ ​Reygadas​ ​-​ ​Japon​ ​and​ ​Battles​ ​in​ ​Heaven,​ ​films​ ​in​ ​focus

Carlos Reygadas speaks often about dreams and how he tries to incorporate them into
his films. Ever since I saw Nostalghia by Andrei Tarkovsky, I realised what dreams can
do to one while being engulfed with someone’s depiction of their dreams. Dreams are
part of our reality, he further says and this statement of his makes me want to examine
further​ ​his​ ​craft​ ​and​ ​his​ ​style​ ​as​ ​a​ ​director​ ​of​ ​feature​ ​films.

What do we think of when we are viewing a film in the theatre. Is it the overpowering
direction of the film which almost leads to a propaganda of sorts by not letting us see
anything else or is it the serene space which is created through images and sound to let
the viewer be swayed in his or her thoughts while also being attached and associated
with the film. It is the later which brings about more discussions and greater respect for
in the serious film making sector. Reygadas without any doubt tries to invoke a
participation from the audience. His films have the serenity and at the same time the
demand to flow in with the juxtaposition of images and sound. His films, mainly his first
and his latest feature films; Japon and The Post Tenenbras Lux respectively, has the
quality of being a folktale and at the same time a piece of our present reality. What is
realism is a question which has been raised from time to time by various art
practitioners and their critiques but instead of raising questions, Reygadas responds
with​ ​his​ ​imagination​ ​of​ ​his​ ​own​ ​reality.

The brutality or the violence that he brings forth on the screen which is directly opposite
to the nature in which Tarkovsky would operate tells us that it is not just merely some
magical realism or folklore that he wants to represent but it's his gaze upon his own
reality. Dreams and imagination are very much a part of a human’s conscious reality
and taking that as a base line we can move forward to understand or view the way
Reygadas likes to showcase his films. His foray into the big bad world of world cinema
was initiated by his debut feature Japon. It was selected in Cannes and was awarded
the prestigious Camera d’or. What does someone do after that? He was celebrated and
rejoiced by the European film media and became a name to look out for. However I
believe Japon was a far superior work in terms of ideation and execution than of his
following films barring his last film. Japon introduced us to the rawness of the space and
also the characters which was beautifully complemented with the shot taking and the
use of music and sound. The journey which was depicted through the visuals and how
the sound kept us close to the character instead of taking us more into the space shows
the​ ​decision​ ​the​ ​filmmaker​ ​had​ ​made​ ​in​ ​reference​ ​to​ ​his​ ​cinematic​ ​vision.

Cinematic​ ​Treatment:

The use of long takes or trying to look at the implementation of planned sequence in his
visual design is an important part of his films. His 360 degree shot taking, where the
camera pans across the space but giving time to only certain elements and picking up
the details in the movement while sometimes bringing us back to the same space or the
character, has been used quite profusely in Japon as well as in his next feature, Battles
in Heaven. The passage of time within such shots is very skillfully mastered with the
sound elements. It is not merely a 360 degree pan when in Battles in Heaven, during
the sequence where Anna finally gives in to Marcos’s sexual desire towards her. The
shot picks up very mundane yet very impactful elements of workers, children playing,
the stacked up houses in the urban neighbourhood. The urban life and its flow which is
mundane yet the cyclic nature of life which goes on creating fluxes of crimes, cries,
sorrows and the desperation of our times. The struggle of modern urban life clubbed
with its apparent illusion of sanity which brings forth the humane nature in us. We are
clubbed together with machines, working with them, for them. How have we
distinguished ourselves from the mechanicality of our existence. The design of the shot
where we see the neighbourhood in its statis when is contrasted with the two characters
who are in constant dilemma and struggle. She is probably hiding her profession from
her family and loved ones and indulging in sexual favours with someone she claims to
have known her since childhood. Being a sex worker, it still questions her ethics since
he is not just any other client for her. There is affection and care. On Marcos’s side, he
is guilty of kidnapping his friends child who died. Their personal state of being is
contrasted with the passivity in the environment. When the camera does come back
inside the room, we see the act being completed but there is no completion within any
of them. She hunches on him looking pensive. Her love for him is real, his guilt is real
and​ ​their​ ​tactile​ ​proximity​ ​is​ ​the​ ​present.

The camera movement from character to space and back to the character needs design
and execution. His design of the movement and the emphasis he puts on his
mise-en-scene in such shots, always has a very direct relationship to the character. His
exploration of the space is not merely an investigation but an outlook from the point of
view of his characters. He usually tries to bind both the spatial exploration along with the
character exploration within one shot. Such shots can also be found in Japon where the
male protagonist looks around in the space and the camera travels in the space coming
back to him. The gaze is more internal and subjective. Even the last shot where the
camera travels amidst the mayhem created along the rail tracks and picks up elements
of the crash through 360 degree pan. Cinema has always created reality through cuts.
Through edit we create spaces but the presentation of a real space without cutting the
shot displays the reality of the space as it is. It's not a manipulation, rather a
representation. This is the zone in which Reygadas operates. More than telling a story,
his edit tries to create pace and uphold the rhythmic nature of his narrative. For example
in Japon, the pacing of the narrative is closely followed by the pacing of the shots in the
timeline but still there were some inflextion points which creates the drama and hence a
signature of the maker. The inclusion of the long drawn drinking and singing session in
Japon towards the end where neither of the main characters are included in any major
way would be one such example. However when seen in the course of the narrative, the
fact that they were all so drunk in a way justifies the eventual accident of their cart.
Being drunk after some laborious work( they had come to pull down the lady’s barn) and
singing in the glory of one’s state of being is such a normal activity in any part of the
world where capitalism and consumeristic work ethics is yet to engulf its share, that we
can relate with that sequence wherever they would have been incorporated. Its the
effect​ ​of​ ​moving​ ​out​ ​of​ ​the​ ​main​ ​structure​ ​but​ ​yet​ ​retaining​ ​the​ ​overall​ ​narrative​ ​intact.

Reygadas uses the close-up of faces or objects. Faces need not only exist within
human faces. A glass pane, a bark of a tree, a puddle on the road, a lamp post may
have faces that can be explored through the medium of photography. It's the way one
brings out the story from such faces which interest the viewer. The choice of lenses in
composing the face along with the camera angle, camera height, the direction of the key
source of light adds to the final effect of the face. The face tells stories, stories of
ethnicity, stories of caste, class and gender, stories of struggle, stories of time, stories of
existence, stories of sexuality, stories which can never be unearthed by human
cognition. However which story the maker wants to highlight depends on the above
mentioned tools. Reygadas works with non-professional actors and yet he chooses
close-up quite freely. We know how difficult it is to hold a close-up shot even for
distinguished actors but he still delves into the difficult zone of close-ups. If we look at
the close-up shots in Japon, we soon understand he is not trying to segregate the male
from the female. His treatment of both the characters in the film is quite equal in the
sense she is made out to be a strong willed woman who lives like a hermit whereas the
very masculine man is physically insufficient and maybe sexually too(the sex scene
doesn't end in a climax of any sort but the man ends up crying and turning around from
the woman) . The use of close-ups towards the end of the sequence invites the viewer
not only to see the faces(the eyes in this case) of the man and the woman but also the
the arrival of the storm which leaves the woman dead. The arrival is also marked by the
table shaking and the glass breaking, again reminding me of Tarkovsky’s Stalker. Even
the way they had been composed on bed has a very uncanny resemblance to the very
famous beginning scene from the same film where the camera tracks from the Stalker
to​ ​his​ ​child​ ​to​ ​his​ ​wife​ ​and​ ​back​ ​to​ ​him.

Time is ingrained in the shots, one has to find the positioning of the shots where time
flows from one shot to another. Its like we have pipes of different sizes and we want to
construct a system where water can flow from one pipe to another without disturbing the
flow of the water. This is what i understood from Tarkovsky’s time pressure definition.
Time according to Reygadas works not very differently. He uses longer shots and mixes
them up with short ones in intervals. He is not in any way trying to match up or recreate
the pressure of time which Tarkovsky has done brilliantly throughout his career and
specially in his last two feature films. Reygadas is trying to find his own temporal quality
within his shots and the way they are edited. The pace is not always determined by the
length of the shots but mostly by the volume of it. It is the volume which transcends to
time and eventually space for Reygadas. Certain shots in Japon, if they were shoot in
track or dolly would tender very similar effect as in Tarkovsky’s films. However the
choice of using handheld as a device and then cutting to the tranquility of a tripod
creates a flow which in turn creates time for me. Reygadas puts together images and
sound and tries to distance himself from the direct association or identification that is
mainly experienced in mainstream film making. In the sequence in Japon, when the
man walks into the room with the lady for the first time, we see a pan from his face to
the back of the lady standing in front of many images of Christ. He doesnt directly cut
from the man’s face to Christ’s face but takes help of a pan in doing so. Again in the
same sequence, she picks up an image of Christ and kisses it where the lips of Christ
is, and he immediately cuts to the man’s image of lying down on the bed. This god
fearing or rather god loving woman eventually agrees to a sexual intercourse when
proposed by the man in his spirit of finding life and avoiding death. She agrees, beyond
various reasons, also because of the resemblance of the character with the features of
Christ which has been established in a layered way rather than being direct in the
representation. That's what editing can also do apart from create time within the
sequences.

Reygadas works with non-professional actors and creates situations and moments with
them using all the classical cinematic devices. His choice of not using professional
actors is clearly understood in the way they conduct themselves in front of the camera.
In Battles in Heaven, his actors were hardly informed about their own character or the
film. He describes that he would usually tell the actors what to say, where to move,
where to stop, where to look. Done! The baggage an actor has in order to portray a
character or to emote especially for non actors is mammoth. His choice of actors as he
says, is usually based on the look of the actor and how closely it resembles that of the
character he has in mind. He would then fit the character according to the actor during
the filming process. Now such a practice is not unique but casting real police officers or
real army personals to do what they do everyday but in front of the camera and maybe
beyond their official hours( in Battles in Heaven). We dont really see any theatricality in
the performances of his actors but a very uncomfortable continuity in their non acting.
The actors are not always meant to act as there are other devices in cinema that can
enhance or help the actors in projecting an emotion or a thought. The two indian
characters in Battles in Heaven are in direct contrast to the caucasian Anna. their body
language, their movements, the way they would utter the syllables were all different.
Reygadas is not trying to direct us or show us the differences in magnification but just
by casting them, he is able to comment on the differences and hence the comment on
the​ ​social​ ​structure​ ​present​ ​in​ ​Mexico​ ​with​ ​its​ ​ethnic​ ​history​ ​and​ ​its​ ​modern​ ​existence.
He would even cast a young indian boy from the roads of Mexico city as a hawker who
sold cocaine.This act immediately reminds me of the way Ritwik Ghatak would cast the
young “bohorupi” pretenting to be goddess Kali in the airdrome sequence which
frightens young Sita and Abhiram. Is it then mere luck or the openess of the vision of
the maker that makes them see characters in human beings even while in the process
of making a film. This is more non-fiction style of film making for me rather than a few
unscripted shots of people talking or the use of hand held as a device to shoot them.
The interview style has been very consciously used by Reygadas where he shot the
introduction scene of the Judge of the village in Japon. However when he cut from that
shot to show the gathering and also the man in the frame, the sense of a fiction creeps
in which is in direct contrast to the shot taking of the judge while he was introducing
himself and the village. Such gameplay between the fictional elements and clubbing it
with non-fictional tools creates a sense of ambiguity for a moment within the viewer but
very soon such devices helps in associating with the space and the characters. It also
separates​ ​the​ ​man​ ​from​ ​the​ ​rest​ ​of​ ​the​ ​village​ ​folks.

His emphasis on texture and tonality is clearly visible from the choice of film stock to the
processing of the film. The almost monochromatic feel to the images in Japon leads to
the​ ​impact​ ​of​ ​the​ ​green​ ​grass​ ​and​ ​the​ ​red​ ​jacket​ ​when​ ​seen.

Reygadas’s use of colour and tone in his first film is very different from the way he
tackled these tools afterwards. His choice of washed out picture quality and an almost
monochromatic​ ​feel​ ​to​ ​the​ ​image​ ​was​ ​beautifully​ ​blended​ ​with​ ​his​ ​idea​ ​for​ ​Japon.