Let’s just get this out of the way, Michelangelo Frammartino’s remarkable, naturalistic filmed essay, “Le Quattro Volte” is not going to be for everyone. However, it will enchant those who wish for a cinematic experience that resembles a philosophical piece of visual art tracing the four cycles of life.
Italian writer/director Frammartino studied architecture before finding his passion in the relationship of physical space and images via photography, film and video installations. With his second film, “Le Quattro Volte” (The Four Times), Frammartino was inspired by Greek philosopher Pythagoras’ four-fold transmigration theory of the soul passing from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. Setting “Le Quattro Volte” in the rural Italian village of Calabria, Frammartino visually traces these four cycles of life through the daily routines of a goat shepherd, a goat, followed by a tree, then a mineral.
What’s fascinating is how Frammartino actually pulls off this conceit without the assistance of substantial narrative, dialog, or conflict. Naturalistic sounds make up the film’s aural soundtrack – goats bleating; the wind blowing through trees; village church bells; a delivery truck’s motor; or the bark of the shepherd’s dog, all help deliver the story. Clips of dialog may be distantly heard as villagers talk or exchange wares, but never does the dialog drive the narrative.
The masterful visuals also progress the film’s themes. White clouds of smoke blow over a charcoal landscape that in the last cycle will be smoke from a chimney. We see a shepherd’s daily routine from village to pasture, and know that he’s ill through his coughs and his nightly medicinal drinks of powder mixed in water. The mixture turns out to be church dust blessed by a cleaning lady. Frammartino wondrously introduces the “miraculous holy dust" by filming the dust particles floating through the air in a type of heavenly light as it’s about to be swept up.
Watching this purely visual and aural tale unfold, one is reminded a few times of the late French filmmaker, Jacques Tati and his visual comedies. A humorous example – the static camera perched on a hill looks down on the village as the dog barks at men hammering pieces of wood. That wood turns out to be a cross that will later be used in a religious progression in which the dog will bark and chase the participants again.
Frammartino frames the next cycles of life against stunning shots of nature. The animal cycle’s little goat becomes lost on its first trip to the pasture and is shot as a miniscule, bleating animal amidst the vast, lonely landscape. The story then transfers from animal to the vegetable cycle as the goat takes refuge under a majestic fir tree. This fir is then chosen by the villagers to be cut down and used for their “Pita” festival and is erected in the village’s main square with just its top intact (again, wonderful shots of this partial tree shown high over rooftops). After the festival, the tree is sold as lumber which is then transformed into the last cycle of wood charcoal (a mineral).
Winner of Best European Film at Cannes, Michelangelo Frammartino’s “Le Quattro Volte” is a unique, moving visual journey, which for most of us, is nothing like we’ve ever seen before.
“Le Quattro Volte” is 88 minutes and unrated. It plays for one week only beginning Friday at the Nuart Theatre.
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