THEindefinability of themselves in a context governed by clear and commonly defined laws, it remains one of the themes more curious that the cinema has loved over the years, a theme around which, obviously, not only this expressive medium has moved, but also themodern art in general, trying to give life and shape to all of those Ghosts, those particularized shapes that torment us every day, even in material contexts that are perfectly geometrical in social canons. With this kind of works, we are faced with a real split between what "seems”And what we can really touch, and it is precisely along this thin line that moves Bliss, recently released film directed by Mike Cahill, and currently present in the Amazon Prime Video catalog.
What is this Bliss talking about?
Since trailer Bliss attempted to capture the attention of the general public through a series of presentative details that cast a first doubt on generally in which the work is hinged, everything was also fueled by the other advertisements around the film. The film, in fact, wherever one goes to see and search, is labeled as a work a half between science fiction and drama, A kind of admixture aesthetic-narrative between the two, in an alternation that wants to see the protagonist move through them. Bliss's story revolves entirely, entirely, around the character of Greg, (played by a Owen Wilson who in this film finds himself playing the role of an extremely character magmatic and particular, always in the balance between one experience and another) which is immediately presented to us through some shots of dull and rather enigmatic photography. Greg works in an office, even if nothing is explained about the position he holds, but we see him intent on implementing some drawings, drawings that have nothing to do with his work, drawings that see him immediately to get lost between the features of his own fantasy drawn on those papers stationed on his desk. That is until he is summoned by the boss.
Il first central detail in Bliss's understanding, it lies precisely in what happens between the moment he draws, and the moment he walks into the office where he was called to report. Greg looks like lost, looking elsewhere, light years away from his office, from his work routine and from everything that surrounds him. Those drawings represent a clear one right from the start escape from everything that surrounds it, as if it were a caged animal with no way out, all enhanced by repetitiveness of the shots and from dull flatness e monotonous area of photography and scenography in which this man is immersed. Before going out, however, a priority kidnaps him, he must absolutely call assistance for a drug (possibly a pain reliever) since the pills at his disposal are running out, but he is refused. Here, for the first time since the beginning of the film, an attack of panic light catches him suddenly, and this fleeting detail will be the main interpretation of the entire film.
Greg's boss plans to fire him by blaming him for a whole host of things, and he does. Greg yes excludes again from reality and the aforementioned leader, due to an accident, falls losing his life. So Greg hides it and escapes to a bar there. This is where Bliss it totally changes register, but it does so only on a level superficial e perceptive. In the bar Greg meets the second protagonist of the film, Isabel (interpreted by Salma Hayek), which begins to tell him that the world in which they find themselves "is not real" and that everything he has done up to that moment, in reality, does not matter, given that what surrounds them does not exist, and that everything is malleable by ingesting some particular yellow stones. From now on, we see Greg bonding indissolubly to this woman, in a relationship that will see him to swing continuously between what is real and what he himself perceives, following Isabel in increasingly particular contexts ai margini of society, to delve into the aforementioned science fiction dynamics.
What does Bliss leave you?
Bliss is one of those films that makes use of cinematic expressive possibilities to tell a story that, at least in appearance, seems rather simple. We are faced with a protagonist rather weak ed estranged, with a complicated relationship with his children, tied to a woman who does not explain never too clearly what happens around them, continually tying it to her through manipulations overt emotional, and psychological violence. The result is an extremely perceptive film and magmatic. The narrative chaos, here, can also be seen as the merit of a narrative in subjective through the eyes of a addict, eyes split between the pain of his everyday life and a sort of parallel and unattainable "bliss" (The title of the film itself alludes to this) science fiction and, apparently, unreal. The use of these crystals, of this sort of gem, remains confused until the end, until the last, presenting a story that centralizes its intent around the "escape". Greg runs away all the time, it runs away from itself, from the children, from the responsibilities of life, but he does it totally unconscious, never realizing it, never fully realizing what is happening in his life. The director uses both of the instrumentation technique of the camera, and of the details of one of the two aforementioned genres, to materialize a point of view that remains intangible and difficult to identify until the end credits.
The choice of transposing events in this way, translating them into point of view of Greg himself, sharpens the indefinability of what is around, depriving the spectator himself of a total understanding of the events represented. It is right on perception of the reality that this film plays its cards from the beginning, writing about a crazy trip, daring and above all mental, a continuous "escape" not only from social stylistic features but above all from themselves, with an ending that suggests and above all reflects a lot. All accompanied by a direction that does not dare very much, alternating many wide-angle and distorted shots, with a rather consistent use of computer graphics and some "dynamizing" expedient from time to time. Nothing to say about the acting of the actors, and about the soundtrack, aligned with what are the developments of the film. Everything is played out the way the viewer himself manages to grasp not just the action in the script, but, above all, i secondary details to paint the various shots. What comes behind to the protagonists of Bliss, the movements and the "flickers" of the various extras that move in the sets, further contribute to messing up (in a good way) the general clarity of this work.
