The human emotions are a tough gig. Many of us occasionally (if not always?) linger in self-doubt, or in doubt in a general sense. We rarely speak our mind and if we do, odds are it'll be considered a pretty tasteless thing to do. We are under various pressure points which correlate with relationships or society laws/expectations and mainly consist of getting hurt one way or another. Its a gargantuan path every human being has to take. In a way, Autumn Ball (Sügisball), based on the novel by one the far most best novelists and play writers of our time in Estonia - Mati Unt, is a story about walking that path. Its been said that in order to live a perfectly fulfilled life, one must find oneself. But its not without trials one must face before obtaining that. Honesty, the sincerest human emotion, is one of the ground ideas Autumn Ball is based on. As M.Unt used to live most of his life under Sovjet rule, he sure knew that saying something didn't always equal meaning it. Therefore his characters dwelled in belief that the life they were living was false in a sense of not being true to oneself. They were captured into an everlasting loop of figuring out the right move and thus, by acting on it, being able to gain redemption. Symbolically, each of the main characters (Mati, Theo, Maurer, and in a way, also the single mother) are able to obtain this aim. However, this doesn't happen quickly nor suddenly and more importantly, not without consequences to one's actions. Not by accident does my comment's subject mention "dance". Personally for me, Maurer's honest, pure, self-forgetting dance in the darkness of the discotheque, has all the metaphorism needed to unlock this whole cinematic experience. Its a dance about breaking free, forgetting oneself and eventually, through pain which one could only understand in a sub-conscious level, re-gaining oneself renewed and turning into a person. Without a doubt, its an action out of desperation. One's ultimate need to be someone. Or, as, paraphrasing the word of character Mati, being the opposite of 'just an automate'. The idea of "dance", however, shouldn't be taken literally and only based on this one situation I wrote about. In a way, it could also represent the most basic (and thus, something with most pain involved) human need - need for another human being by one's side. For me, its most beautifully illustrated by the short, albeit meaningful relationship between the little girl (daughter of the single mother) and an old man who lives alone, eating his cereal and the only thing which brings somewhat joy in his life is a little, black, monkey who dances to him when the old man winds it up. This dance of something lifeless, but yet of something so precious and important to someone, is perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes ever I have seen in a movie. Anyway, after one incident when the old man re-appears by the fence of the kindergarten yard and gives girl a candy, he's casted away and called pervert. A bit later, single mother and the girl are getting home in a bus or in a tram, and the girl asks whats a pervert, mother doesn't answer, only looks away and smiles just a little. Possibly next day, she is called to kindergarten because her daughter had went missing. While she shouts and cries out, we see the girl coming back, holding the same black, wind-up monkey the old man use to have. Few situations later, we can see the old man sitting on his bed, and laughing. A long and pure, honest laugh that makes him gasp for air later. This was his redemption - being able to interact with someone who might understand the simple joy he was having only to himself all this time. The most tragic-comical character is Mati, who in a way, could be interpreted as the novel's author himself. His girlfriend leaves him and he starts a continual rampage in local bars (where mainly young and/or middle-aged intelligence of Tallinn seems to hang out) trying to find himself his "second-part", the one which he lost. His redemption, however, is re-finding his girlfriend who, after being awhile with another man, comes back to him out of love she feels towards him. The deep hug they are having in the middle of dozens empty alcohol bottles is where the movie draws its last chord and stops. Maurer and Theo, while being shown as people one could possibly despise, each find their redemption as well. For one, its for once speaking his mind and for the other, unleashing all the rage upon symbolically something he has been hating all these years while being a desk clerk in some bar for intelligent, educated people, "upper side" of the food chain so to speak - the hate towards something that is "better" and "smarter" than he is. Also, battering to death the supposed great actor/playwright could be interpreted as "death of the author". As you can see, its hard to write about anything else but the story, but before finishing up, I'm trying communicate some of the cinematic perfection. Camera work, also the picture editing were extremely beautiful (the changing sets of late evening streets of Tallinn with only street lights burning and cars driving by was riverting). The actors, all of them, were top-notch. I have always believed that when a movie has extremely good main leads but also very good supporting cast, even in really short roles (incident in super market jumps to mind, also the boss of Theo's), the movie isn't just good, its perfection. I think its a piece of cinema which is transcendent in time and land borders and thus, in a way speaking to everyone of us dependant of our nationality. After all, there are everywhere "boxes, and in those boxes, there are people who want to be happy.".
Thanks for reading this.
Thanks for reading this.