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Man of Aran (1934) Plus avec IMDbPro »

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11 utilisateurs sur 11 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Enthralling!, 23 janvier 2001
Auteur : Zen Bones de USA

If you were to ask passers-by on the street if they'd be interested in seeing a 1934 documentary about the harsh day-to-day existence of a tiny community living on a remote island off the coast of Ireland -- well, you'd be standing there all day before you could find someone who'd say, "sure!". Which is really a disappointment because they don't know what they're missing!

Think of every poem you've read about the sea and man's relation to it and you might get a clue as to the depths of feeling that this film has. It's like Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and W.B. Yeats all rolled into one. It's extremely simplistic, just shots of how a small family fishes, hauls seaweed for fertilizer (there is no soil on the island) and dodges waves so high that its foam sprays above the cliff-tops. Not to mention an incredible sequence where five fishermen try to catch and kill a shark that is a good deal larger than their boat!

What's most exhilarating about this film is that while you're watching it, you can't help but think that these people are crazy to choose to live in such a desolate and difficult place, but then you try to imagine them elsewhere and you know that they are as much a part of that environment as the stubborn sea-worn cliffs are. After even thirty minutes of the film, the roar of the ocean and the cries of the gulls fill your head to such an extreme that you know that such people could live no where else. This film is reminiscent of Roberto Rossellini's film, "Stromboli" about the inhabitants of a small village on a volcanic island. There are a few brief pockets of sentimentality due to the score, but the filmmakers thankfully left out the music during all of the film's most important scenes. Overall what you have is an incredible cinematic experience that makes you think and imagine what it would be like to live a life where every day is a struggle with the elements of nature and a fight for survival, yet filled with the deepest awe and respect for nature and for living.

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9 utilisateurs sur 9 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A Spectacular depiction of man and nature, 26 avril 2004
Auteur : (FADrury@aol.com) de Bow, NH

I rented this from Netflix recently. Visually, this picture is stunning. Some of the finest filming of the sea I've ever seen. The minimalist story really isn't much, just an attempt to provide some excuse for various actions in the film. This film is really not a documentary at all. One of the special features on the DVD is a short film called "Making the Myth" (or something like that), which is all about how the film was made, how Flaherty scripted various scenes, etc. As noted in the a previous review, the entire shark scene was something Flaherty pushed, recognizing that shark hunting sells. However, according to "Making the Myth," basking shark hunting had gone out over 50 years earlier. Apparently Flaherty also thought that, if he got people hunting the sharks for his move, they might start it up again as a local industry. We found a good portion of the dialogue almost unintelligible. Especially at the start, we thought they we speaking Gaelic! Still, the dialogue is really unnecessary. Flaherty uses old fashioned dialogue cards, like in a silent film, to explain what's coming up. Overall, this was a very interesting film to watch. Since it's just over an hour long, it's a good one to see when you have some time but don't want to commit to any "Major Movie Event!"

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7 utilisateurs sur 8 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
The magic of black and white photography with stunning visuals, 8 février 2000
Auteur : monabe de Tuross Head, Australie

A magic film that you can watch again and again for its majesty and drama. I cannot recall another black and white movie that so well captured the terrifying grandeur of the sea. If you saw and enjoyed "Ryan's Daughter", do see this classic of cinema and compare it's storm sequence. What magic Flaherty captured in astonishing cinematography and editing! The setting is wonderful, so do see this film, and hope you too get the opportunity to see the West coast of Ireland when the sea is up and the wind is shrieking. Times may have changed even these more remote parts of Ireland, but nothing will ever overcome the stark and rugged beauty of this glorious landscape so ably captured in "Man of Aran".

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4 utilisateurs sur 4 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
This amazing documentary is doubly enjoyable, seen on the Island of Ishni Mor in a dusty little room of an aging museum., 27 septembre 2002
Auteur : TerraComs (TerraComs@aol.com) de Arizona

We had jounced across Galway bay in a 45 minute ferry ride, boarded a pony trap for an hour's ride in a two-wheeled carriage, upholstered with leather and duct tape and driven by an ancient Irishman named Tom Flaherty, whose first language was Gaelic. He deposited us at the Atlantic side of the island at a tiny museum for break. My husband opted for the hike to the headland to view a crumbling 20th century fort, while I browsed the museum. It was there that I spied a poster for "Man of Aran" - only 2.50 Euros per person. It sounded vaguely interesting, a way to pass time til the pony trap driver returned to take us bouncing back to the ferry boat landing.

We climbed the steep stairs and were seated in a room overlooking the centuries old stone walls that crawl haphazardly over the rugged terrain. A large high definition television sat before us, and we waited for the lady at the downstairs desk to come turn it on. We were joined by four more people, the blinds were drawn and the warbly, scratchy sound track and grainy black and white documentary began. We were gripped immediately by the story - part adventure, part documentary, part drama. It was easy to believe the severe conditions, the arduous, back breaking work of gathering kelp, fishing in the heaving surf, rocky, slippery shores, having just witnessed them in person. A few of the scenes are a little fakey, but we're talking 1934 here, and if you'd ever seen that pounding surf at the foot of that towering cliff, you'd know why they perhaps went Hollywood in the shark hunting scene. If you can't see it in its place of origin, by all means make the effort to find a print. This is a classic. By the way, our driver, Tom Flaherty, would have been 12 years old when the film was made but the director/producer Flaherty was an American from Hollywood, and much distrusted by the natives. He had one heck of a time making the movie, so the brochure at the desk informed us. In typical local resident style, our driver had never seen the movie and did not claim to be related to the director. He dropped us at the ferry and, speaking endearing terms in Gaelic to Brownie, his faithful cart horse, urged her back up the path to the pub for his daily pint of Guinness.

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5 utilisateurs sur 6 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
The only realist film I've seen that I enjoyed., 20 juin 1999

Auteur : Orlok de Watertown, MA

This review is being written by a man who absolutely despises everything about realist style films. However, Flaherty's depiction of life on the Isle of Aran captivated me from start to finish. Filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations, Flaherty would have been lying through his teeth to have called this a documentary (the man of Aran wasn't even from Aran). Man of Aran remains realist however in that, I believe, in that it only speaks to you if you hold a connection to the sort of life it depicts. Flaherty brings forth the essence of that life but will only hold your interest if you actually care how someone might farm in a soilless field of broken rock.

If that isn't your bag, you can still at least enjoy Flaherty's visuals. Waves pound against rocky cliffs sending spray a hundred feet high. It is quite a spectacle.

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5 utilisateurs sur 7 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
People working through incredible hardship, 18 mai 2005

Auteur : bscardozo de Etats-Unis

Another movie by a master movie maker.

His documentaries make one feel the hardship his subjects undergo, whether real or not.

A must see along with Nanook.

The visuals are stunning as is the empathy of the director for his subjects.

Would there be a documentary director like him today -- except for Frederick Wiseman whom I am sure was inspired by Flaherty's movies such as Nanook (a picture of a long lost world) and Man of Aran.

I wonder if people are still farming Aran or if they have all left for the big city.

There are other documentaries by the BBC -- See South Georgia Island or the re-creations of Shackleton's unsuccessful trip to the South Pole and you will feel as well as ache along with them.

A true pioneer when making films was difficult at best, impossible at worst. But Flaherty make the impossible real and captured a world that no longer exists.

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2 utilisateurs sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
A work of art, yes; a documentary, problematic, 7 octobre 2006

Auteur : bandw de Boulder, CO

*** Ce commentaire peut contenir des spoilers ***

This is beautifully filmed with some real highlights. The seas off the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland can be awesomely stormy and you will probably never see more impressive footage of such as in this film. There is a fantastic sequence of a two-day battle to catch a Basking Shark and the final scenes of three fishermen in a currach on the stormy sea trying to make it to shore are hair-raising. The many shots of spectacular cloud formations over slivers of land are enough to make an Ansel Adams envious.

The theme of man fighting the elements in a harsh environment just to survive is hit pretty hard. The family depicted is indeed living a primitive existence. They carry seaweed in baskets on their backs up steep cliffs to compost for soil to plant their potatoes; they patch their canvas-hulled currachs with rags and tar; they spear sharks for meat and oil.

By watching the extras on the DVD you learn that "Man of Aran" is actually a historical reenactment of what things might have been like in a bygone era - and a highly romanticized reenactment at that. By the time "Man of Aran" was made, 1934, the people on the Aran Islands had not hunted sharks for decades; the seaweed was carried on mules; there were well-to-do islanders who owned large acreages of fertile soil; cattle were sent to market by forcing them to swim to ships anchored hundreds of yards off shore. And director Flaherty processed all of his film on the island, so things could not have been all that primitive.

I can think that this movie influenced subsequent work. In "The Field," a key plot element is having Richard Harris do back-breaking seaweed hauls up steep cliffs, and Bergman's famous black figures silhouetted against the sky in "The Seventh Seal" are derivative of similar images in "Man of Aran."

I felt duped by this being called a documentary, but, be that as it may, I found "Man of Aran" well worth watching for what it is.

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Why Isn't It On Video?, 7 février 2003

Auteur : (Inishere) de Weymouth, MA

I taped "Man of Aran" back in 1992 off a TV broadcast. I'm glad I still have it, because I'm certain I've never seen it on the air since. My father grew up on the smallest of the Aran Islands (hence my user ID), and I heard quite a bit about the film before finally seeing it. The baby girl in the crib, for instance, grew up to marry the brother of our one-time neighbor. Dad also assured me that Robert Flaherty didn't follow the islanders around unobtrusively with his camera, but staged all the action. Hunting sharks, for instance, may still have been done at the turn of the last century, but not by the 1930's. That same year (1992), Dad came across Robert Flaherty's daughter at an Irish festival. She mentioned that she had some unused footage from "Man of Aran" back home in New Hampshire. That would be great to see on a DVD version. Of course, who knows what kind of shape that film stock is in by now? Call it a 'documentary fantasy' if you will (which the British film magazine Sight & Sound did). To me, it will always be a powerful look at how harsh, and beautiful, it is to live off the sea.

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My Ancesrty and Family members on film, long ago, 30 août 2001
Auteur : Sue (semerald10) de Chicopee, Mass

As a child, I saw Man of Aran in my grandfather's living room. I didn;t understand why he seemed so moved by the Man of Aran. I recently learned that Colman King (the star) was my grandfather's first cousin. Delia King Donahue was my great grandmother, and her nephew was Colman King. As far as the film goes, it is what it is, the life and times of those trying to eek out a living under very adverse circumstances.

Does anyone know where I might obtain a poster(reproduction) of the movie? Yah, nostalgia)

Thanks, Sue

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1 utilisateurs sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Starring the ocean..., 7 novembre 2006

Auteur : netwallah de The New Intangible College

A silent movie with sounds added later, waves crashing and wind blowing and gulls calling and windy orchestral music based on Irish songs and people talking in heavy accents. Intertitles as well. There is no plot to speak of, just the rugged life on the Aran Isles, men going out to sea in small boats, women watching from the shore, a young boy eager to join the men, a shark hunt, big seas, and the men returning safely, but just barely. The photography is spectacular, giving a good sense of the near-barrenness of the islands and the old traditional life, not to mention providing amazing and frightening shots of huge waves thundering against cliffs and cascading back down in waterfalls all along the rim. All the men seem to wear the same outfit, work pants and a black wool sweater and a sort of tam with a big top-knot, and the almost too-cute boy wears the same. The dialogue must have been recorded separately and edited in: there's often none of the background noise we'd expect on location, and the lines have that tone of amateur improvisation. It might have been better to leave it as a silent movie—as brilliant as Flaherty was, he took longer to make the transition to sound than anybody. Another thing. I was wondering about the extent to which Flaherty orchestrated the doings of the Aran people to fit his story (and his conception of the primitive life). Notwithstanding these grumblings, I'd still have to rate this very high, largely because of the photography, including the many low-angle shots of the boy and his mother walking along the cliffs with the sky soaring above them, the ocean shots, the intercutting for continuity, and the loving attention to landscape and human detail.

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