I'm not surprised to learn that the writer/director of "News From Home," Chantal Akerman, dropped out of film school after only 3 months. If she had stayed a while longer, she would have learned many things that could have made this into a better, more interesting film such as; camera movements (tilting, panning, zooming), the need to vary your shot composition (medium shots, close-ups, cut-aways), pulling focus, pacing, editing, etc... I haven't seen this many lengthy, wide, stationary shots in a film since the last time I watched an old silent movie from the 1920s!
"NFH" begins with a wide shot of a side street in lower Manhattan. A car goes by. Three people appear in the distance and start walking toward the camera. You think that maybe they're significant in some way and something's going to happen but then they turn and walk off in another direction and the shot changes to another wide shot of a pedestrian-less street that lasts nearly a minute. This is indicative of the whole film. It's mostly made up of wide shots, that are held far too long, where nothing very interesting happens. Finally, around 11 minutes in, the camera-woman actually does a pan and it's underwhelming.
After a while the "action" moves underground, with the stationary camera placed on a subway car. This is even more boring than the street scenes as the camera is trained on 1 1/3 of the car's doors for a whole 3 1/2 minutes, while the train travels from above 59th St. to below Canal St.
Then there's more street scenes with people walking by or standing around, more subway car, more streets, some long stretches without narration... At one point the (stationary) camera is parked on a subway platform in the Times Square station for OVER NINE (9!) MINUTES! Yes, it's just plonked there, on a tripod, unmoving, for what seems like an eternity while trains pass by and people get on/off. Unless you're from someplace so incredibly rural that you've never even seen a train before, this is not interesting! Then it's more streets, more subway... 50+ minutes in, camera-lady remembers that it's actually okay to move the camera occasionally.
Then the film-makers get in a car, point the (still stationary) camera out the window, and drive up what looks like 10th Ave. for ELEVEN (11!) MINUTES! There are no cuts when the car stops for traffic lights, it's all real time. Now, I could understand Akerman wanting to avoid trendy, touristy, obvious places like Times Square or 5th Avenue, but spending ages cruising a dull, industrial-looking street is incredibly boring!
Then there's more subway, more streets, and ultimately, the Staten Island Ferry. The (STILL stationary) camera is plopped down on the stern of the ferry for almost ELEVEN (11!) MINUTES as it travels from Manhattan to S.I., no movement, no cut-aways, no editing.
I guess the one bright spot for anyone who watches this film in a theater is that there are 3 scenes where you can run to the bathroom, go to the concession stand, check your phone, and then return to your seat and the shot on-screen won't have changed!
I understand that this was the '70s and MTV hadn't happened yet but this is all too long, slow, and dull. If "NFH" had been cut down to a quarter or a fifth of it's length it might have made a good short. Once you've seen a 5-10 second shot of an uninteresting street or subway platform, that's enough, you don't need to see another 20-50 seconds!
And what about the "news from home" that narrates this mess? From the sound of the dreary letters, Chantal needs to return to her family in Belgium, pronto! Like, before they all drop dead... Mom is always tired, has problems with her teeth, and sounds depressed. Dad is tired, sleeps poorly, is sick, and has an abcess. Sister, Sylviane, has the flu. Someone named Lydie is sick and her husband wants to leave her for another woman, Nadia has a "female problem," and Freddy has a blood clot. Mom and Dad also have financial troubles. No wonder their daughter wants to stay in grimy, '70s NYC, Belgium sounds like a drag!
If you're a native New Yorker, there's some mild interest in seeing formerly grubby areas that have now become trendy and old subway cars, covered in graffiti, with those metal handles that were so fun to hang on when you were a kid. Someone please tell me where those bright red (?!) busses that were shown parked along 10th Avenue were used. It's also slightly amusing to occasionally see someone walk by who resembles J.J. Walker (in his Dyn-O-Mite! days), Sly Stallone, or a lost member of the Village People but these things are not enough to warrant sitting through this entire film.
Call me crazy (or politically incorrect, if you're a whiner) but I can't help feeling that this film wouldn't be as highly regarded as it is if it had been directed by say, a straight, White, American man instead of a European lesbian. Unless you're extremely interested in NYC in the '70s or you lived on 10th Avenue back then, you'll probably want to skip it.
"NFH" begins with a wide shot of a side street in lower Manhattan. A car goes by. Three people appear in the distance and start walking toward the camera. You think that maybe they're significant in some way and something's going to happen but then they turn and walk off in another direction and the shot changes to another wide shot of a pedestrian-less street that lasts nearly a minute. This is indicative of the whole film. It's mostly made up of wide shots, that are held far too long, where nothing very interesting happens. Finally, around 11 minutes in, the camera-woman actually does a pan and it's underwhelming.
After a while the "action" moves underground, with the stationary camera placed on a subway car. This is even more boring than the street scenes as the camera is trained on 1 1/3 of the car's doors for a whole 3 1/2 minutes, while the train travels from above 59th St. to below Canal St.
Then there's more street scenes with people walking by or standing around, more subway car, more streets, some long stretches without narration... At one point the (stationary) camera is parked on a subway platform in the Times Square station for OVER NINE (9!) MINUTES! Yes, it's just plonked there, on a tripod, unmoving, for what seems like an eternity while trains pass by and people get on/off. Unless you're from someplace so incredibly rural that you've never even seen a train before, this is not interesting! Then it's more streets, more subway... 50+ minutes in, camera-lady remembers that it's actually okay to move the camera occasionally.
Then the film-makers get in a car, point the (still stationary) camera out the window, and drive up what looks like 10th Ave. for ELEVEN (11!) MINUTES! There are no cuts when the car stops for traffic lights, it's all real time. Now, I could understand Akerman wanting to avoid trendy, touristy, obvious places like Times Square or 5th Avenue, but spending ages cruising a dull, industrial-looking street is incredibly boring!
Then there's more subway, more streets, and ultimately, the Staten Island Ferry. The (STILL stationary) camera is plopped down on the stern of the ferry for almost ELEVEN (11!) MINUTES as it travels from Manhattan to S.I., no movement, no cut-aways, no editing.
I guess the one bright spot for anyone who watches this film in a theater is that there are 3 scenes where you can run to the bathroom, go to the concession stand, check your phone, and then return to your seat and the shot on-screen won't have changed!
I understand that this was the '70s and MTV hadn't happened yet but this is all too long, slow, and dull. If "NFH" had been cut down to a quarter or a fifth of it's length it might have made a good short. Once you've seen a 5-10 second shot of an uninteresting street or subway platform, that's enough, you don't need to see another 20-50 seconds!
And what about the "news from home" that narrates this mess? From the sound of the dreary letters, Chantal needs to return to her family in Belgium, pronto! Like, before they all drop dead... Mom is always tired, has problems with her teeth, and sounds depressed. Dad is tired, sleeps poorly, is sick, and has an abcess. Sister, Sylviane, has the flu. Someone named Lydie is sick and her husband wants to leave her for another woman, Nadia has a "female problem," and Freddy has a blood clot. Mom and Dad also have financial troubles. No wonder their daughter wants to stay in grimy, '70s NYC, Belgium sounds like a drag!
If you're a native New Yorker, there's some mild interest in seeing formerly grubby areas that have now become trendy and old subway cars, covered in graffiti, with those metal handles that were so fun to hang on when you were a kid. Someone please tell me where those bright red (?!) busses that were shown parked along 10th Avenue were used. It's also slightly amusing to occasionally see someone walk by who resembles J.J. Walker (in his Dyn-O-Mite! days), Sly Stallone, or a lost member of the Village People but these things are not enough to warrant sitting through this entire film.
Call me crazy (or politically incorrect, if you're a whiner) but I can't help feeling that this film wouldn't be as highly regarded as it is if it had been directed by say, a straight, White, American man instead of a European lesbian. Unless you're extremely interested in NYC in the '70s or you lived on 10th Avenue back then, you'll probably want to skip it.