[SALT AND FIRE
screens Thursday May 4th at 6:45 pm and Friday May 5th at 9:35 pm at the
Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
After a few years spent making only documentaries, filmmaker
Werner Herzog recently made a return to narrative film with two features. While
technically 2016 releases, both films have had their Cleveland premieres this
year. The first, the epic biopic QUEEN
OF THE DESSERT, was a sumptuous yet inert period piece that dealt with some
of Herzog's usual themes (a driven protagonist who follows their vision despite
great resistance), but did so in a safe and, frankly, dull manner. While SALT AND FIRE has some issues of its
own, being safe and dull is not among them.
The film begins with a UN delegation being sent to
investigate an environmental disaster. The team, led by Dr. Laura Sommerfeld (Veronica
Ferres), is kidnapped by what appears to be a terrorist group. As it turns out,
though, the abductors are working for the CEO of the corporation responsible
for the disaster, Matt Riley (Michael Shannon).
While Sommerfeld's companions Dr. Cavani (Gael Garcia
Bernal) and Dr. Meier (Volker Michalowski) are left in their cell to cope with,
"the mother of all diarrhea", Riley and his right-hand man Krauss
(Lawrence Krauss) offer considerable exposition before taking their captive out
to an oasis in the middle of a huge salt flat. And there they leave her with 2
young children and survival rations. Whether the abductors will return or not,
and if so, when, Sommerfeld does not know.
While SALT AND FIRE
starts out looking to be a modestly budgeted eco-thriller, it doesn't we soon realize
that this is a profoundly odd film. Action and intrigue are dispensed with
early on in favor of philosophical and metaphysical monologues delivered in
stiff and clunky fashion. At times, even though the film is in English, it
feels as if something has been lost in translation.
There are also odd little touches like how Krauss, who is in
a wheelchair when we first meet him, turns out to be quite capable of walking.
As he informs Sommerfeld when she asks him about it, "I only use the
wheelchair when I'm tire of life." One of the two boys Sommerfeld is left
with carries around a Godzilla toy, perhaps as a symbol for man-made destruction
as he often was in his own films, or perhaps just because Herzog found it
visually appealing.
Shannon gives a typically magnetic performance, and if there
is any actor working today who can fill the shoes of Herzog's late great
collaborator Klaus Kinski when it comes to intensity and borderline insanity,
it's surely him. Ferres makes for a striking screen presence as wel, and Krauss
is fun in his eccentric character role. None of these performers are given
characters that feel like real people or dialogue that feels like anything real
people might actually speak, but that's not to say it isn't fun watching them.
Herzog is clearly following a vision here, and any fan of
his will admire and respect that. The man is a true artist, but as can happen
with even the best artists, the vision he pursues here fails to connect. There
seems to be some kind of environmental message, but despite all the
pontificating by the various characters, the message never comes through
clearly. But if the film is a failure, at least it's an interesting one. 2 ½ out
of 4 stars.
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