Comment getting out of hand

This weeks movie club podcast dealt with a fantastic movie, Lady in the Water. I am a major fan of M. Night Shyamalan, so I chimed in on the comments section, but the comment turned rather long, so I thought I'd post it here as well, just to make sure that this blog keeps getting new content in spite of my laze.

It's a shame that the discussion about Shyamalan never goes beyond wether or not you buy the story. Even if you do not think that the story makes sense or is worth of attention because it doesn't play fair or whatever, the way he tells it is amazing.

He is a visualist in the tradition of Stanley Kubrick. You might have elements that are ridiculous and wack, but who cares? Every frame is so deliberately set up and composed that it is a delight to watch. I mean does anybody buy that a woman all of a sudden has blue hair? Of course not, but it looks awesome. I takes balls to be awesome. Shyamalan especially with his latest two films, has made an effort to force audiences to relate to the films more as artistic expression that is happening on a film screen, moreso than an immersive experience to lose yourself in. In The Village all of his characters speak like they are in a poem from the middle-ages and it completely takes you out of the movie, but it is a joy to listen to. His images in all of his films are so blunt and blatantly set up, there is no excuse for having certain colors be prevalent, and for the framing to be extremely deliberate and unnatural - to the point where people may get the experience that they aren't being played fair with. They don't have a chance to relate to the films on an emotional level, because they are so different from anything that would be even halfway relateable. But that doesn't mean that it's a failure. It's not like he tried to make Raw Deal and failed, these films are more blunt and uninviting than most other films being released in these years.

The fact that all of the stylistic elements work together in unison - with the scores standing out as being particularly noteworthy and borderline revolutionary in contrast to all the dribble that usually accompany films - makes him a filmmaker worthy of attention and admiration. His films do not attempt in any way to get the audience to go along for the ride. They're almost daring you to take them seriously, because they seem so extremely strange and impossible to relate to.

For me, M. Night Shyamalan is probably my favourite living director. He is blunt, without excuse and without remorse. He does whatever he wants, and he doesn't give a fuck if he loses the audience, which I think is a hell of a lot more respectable, than the constant pandering to and secondguessing of audiences that is so prevalent in hollywood-filmmaking.

So yeah, Lady in the Water is tough to relate to. It's hard to let into your head, because you have no idea how to define the film. It's challenging, but not in a way such as a David Lynch film is challenging, it's challenging because it's also being playful with all the conventions that you definitely know and can define. It toys around with your expectations and your understanding of filmmaking. The umbelical cord between filmmaker and audience is stretched extremely thin, and the challenge is to stick with the filmmaker, and continue to believe that you're in good hands, even though you may want to secondguess the film. If you do so, you'll get so much more out of a Shyamalan movie, than nearly any other major-released director today.