The first time I saw Waltz with Bashir, I fell asleep. No reflection on the film, more a reflection on my irregular lifestyle. Seeing it the second time I was again struck by the opening credits, a masterpiece of scene-setting. But to wind back a bit ….
Waltz with Bashir is an animated documentary telling the story of the director Ari Folman’s search to recover his memories of his own involvement in the 1982 massacres of Palestinians in the Shatila and Chabra refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut.
This film is remarkable in many ways. But most obviously, documentaries are not typically animated. In fact, the only other full-length animated documentary I can think of is Persepolis, also released here this year. Waltz with Bashir doesn’t feel at all like a documentary; it feels simply like gripping story-telling. And the form the story-telling takes is very soon quite irrelevant.
I’m reminded of watching a performance of Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice in a puppet theatre in Prague. The theatre held an audience of 40 or so and the procenium arch of the stage was about 3 feet high. The set consisted of painted sheets of cardboard. Quite contrary to my expectations, the magic of the puppetry, the music and the drama drew me in in just a few minutes.
today, by a rather circuitous route, i came to read an interview with nicholas shakespeare about the background to his novel ‘the dancer upstairs’. the article, which originally appeared in the buenos aires herald in 1994, is quite fascinating and i’d recommend it to anyone who, like me, is nostalgic for the days when the prospect of joining what would now be termed ‘a terrorist group’ seemed almost attractive – or at least preferable to joining normal society. the interview is here. and i recommend the film made from shakespeare’s novel: http://imdb.com/title/tt0118926/
souad massi is an algerian living in exile in france. her songs protest against the loss of connection with the traditional values of her homeland.
this song ‘raoui’ (storyteller) also features in the film ‘le soleil assassiné’, set in algiers during the political turmoil which made it impossible for souad massi to continue her career in algeria. and she has the most fantastic voice!
the lyrics of the song are:
Oh storyteller tell us a story
Make it a tale
Tell me about the people of old
Tell me about 1001 Nights
And about Lunja daughter of the Ghoul
And about the son of the Sultan
I’m about to tell a story
We’ll be far from this world
I’m about to tell a story
Everyone of us has a story in his heart
Narrate and forget we’re adults
In your mind we’re young
Tell us about heaven and hell
About the bird that never flew in his life
Make us understand the meaning of the world
Oh storyteller tell it just as they told you
Don’t add anything, don’t leave anything out
We could see into your mind
Narrate to make us forget this time
Leave us at once upon a time
this song features in the soundtrack of the film ‘le soleil assassiné’.
