Paradise Trilogy by Ulrich Seid - Essay Example

Paradise Trilogy by Ulrich Seidl The films of Austrian director Ulrich Seidl are knownfor their piercing portrayals of the human condition and striking depictions of reality. In his Paradise Trilogy, the director aims to project the multidimensional and complex nature of human emotions, actions and behavior as three women belonging to the same family are subjected to different experiences. The Paradise Trilogy is a one of kind narrative and social commentary that displays extraordinary authenticity as it discusses love, faith and hope. The paper assesses the formal strategies of Paradise: Hope which is the last part of the Paradise Trilogy. Comparisons between the formal strategies of all the three elements of the Paradise Trilogy are also made. The paper also discusses the political relevance of Seidl’s work in the society of today. Introduction The depictions of human life in Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise Trilogy are certainly not represented in manners that would appeal to a close-minded audience. Therefore, to truly appreciate the essence of Seidl’s filmmaking in the Paradise Trilogy the private lives of the characters should be observed carefully and even their most disturbing secrets accepted. The Paradise Trilogy represents in its three installments the true feelings that humans yearn for and seek in life; love, faith and hope. The achievement for the director however, certainly remains in how the movies are presented in a way that is entirely realistic yet disturbing and provocative. The purpose of this paper is to extensively and comprehensively analyze the formal strategies of the last installment of the Paradise Trilogy, Paradise: Hope. The discussion aims to understand the transition of the formal strategies employed by the director throughout the three movies by examining the similarities and difference that are reflected in the entire trilogy. In conclusion the paper aims to define the art of Ulrich Seidl that is portrayed through the course of Paradise Trilogy’s journey with regards to its political and aesthetic relevance to the society of today. Paradise Trilogy According to Perry the progression of formal strategies in cinema is a reflection of the evolution of filmmaking itself that gradually transitioned from the sketches of mid and late 1800s in favor of tackling more complex storylines and abstract ideas in the early 1900s (25). While, commentators and analysts such as Perry would assert that the progression of formal strategies in filmmaking are representations of a new epoch in the history of cinema it should be noted that the skills of a director such as Seidl who wishes to portray human condition as it really is augments the implementation of formal strategies in films. Even though, the essence and the core of Paradise Trilogy remains inert throughout the three parts the interrelation of the stories has not barred Ulrich Seidl from employing a range of formal strategies in his last installment Paradise: Hope. As with Seidl’s previous work such as the movie titled Import/Export, those who are familiar with his talents would have expected the director to continue the projection of despair and stagnation with regards to the protagonist of the film. As Frey notes that once the director famously wished viewers present at the premier of his movie, Dog Days (2001) “a disturbing evening” (189). What certainly comes as a relief for the audience is that Paradise: Hope’s protagonist Melanie Lenz displays much conviction and integrity throughout the course of the movie which documents her journey at a diet camp and her relationship with a much older doctor, the last installment of the trilogy in fact assists the emergence of an optimistic and hopeful side to Seidl that was indeed unexpected but rewarding. While it is obvious that the films in the trilogy share an important relationship with regards to the involvement of the characters in each installment of Paradise, the protagonist in Seidl’s movies are an entity within themselves and exceptional focus is given to the development of characters such that the audience is able to not only understand their emotions, actions and behavior but also relate to them. In Paradise: Hope the emotional dilemma of Melanie Lenz and her sense of innocence leads to the construction of several meaningful and profound scenes of reflection and awakening. These personal conflicts are connected to the storyline through extension of shots and prolonged moments that have been integrated into the plot to depict transition in the movie. An intriguing observation that should be stated when conducting a comparison between the formal strategies of Paradise: Love, Paradise: Faith and Paradise: Hope is that reportedly Seidl intended to release the trilogy as one film; this understanding is often visible in the correlation that the strategies of each one of the movies share with each other. It is evident from the opening scene of Paradise: Love that Seidl is a director who wishes to make an immediate impact on the mind of the audience rather than creating suspense or prolonging the period that it takes to reveal the crux of the narrative. In fact each and every scene is detailed to metaphorically represent the feelings of the director and what he intends to project. Pinkerton notes that the significance of the opening scene of Paradise: Love lays the foundation for the rest of the movie, as the viewer is introduced to a group of mentally disabled adults enjoying a trip to a carnival and hitting each other with bumper cars the camera changes to the one that has been placed on the dashboards of the cars to essentially capture a much more raucous environment that is volatile and unstable due to the impact of the bumper cars hitting each other. That exactly is the state of humanity according to Seidl, it is lost and unaware with human beings conducting their actions without a cause or a purpose. The individuals in the opening scene of Paradise: Love are not shown again during the entire course of the movie as Seidl believes and quite rightfully so that they have already been successful in defining the futility of the current human condition (Pinkerton). The most appreciable consequence of the Paradise: Trilogy for its director is his success in striking a balance between documentary and fiction. It appears that Seidl does not seek to display extravagance or pomposity in his work, as Lim notes that the director does not even present a script to his actors, some of whom do not even work in a professional capacity within the film industry. Of the three installments of the Paradise Trilogy the formal strategies in Paradise: Love and Paradise: Hope share the most similarities, perhaps it is an indication of the fact that the protagonists of the two movies share the closest relationship as mother and daughter. Even though, Seidl’s work in Import/Export sets out to explore the disturbing realities of today and at some point even loses faith in human nature that is not to say that the formal strategies of the Paradise Trilogy do not denote optimism, after all, the last title in the trilogy gives the audience hope. The idea is to portray genuine depictions of what society is, often the camera maneuver comes to the individuals in the crowd capturing ordinary faces to highlight their importance in the background. A critical issue addressed in Paradise: Hope through its protagonist is that of teen body image and how the youth of today is deceived into worshipping the inflated sense of beauty projected in the media, Seidl however refrains from believing in ostentatious projections of human beauty and this ideology is visible in how the audience sees his actors in the film – they are real, ordinary and average people that are not beautified by the director through camera trickery or projection of flattering angles. Seidl’s camera captures what it sees, in Paradise: Hope the audience sees the exuberance and joy of the protagonist as the sun shines on her face, in Paradise: Love the viewer comprehends the emotions of Teresa as she seeks love in Kenya and in Paradise: Faith, Anna’s devotion and dilemma as she shares her life with a Muslim husband. Werner Herzog once said of Seidl’s movie Animal Love (1996): “Never have I looked so directly into hell” (Lim, n. p.). Herzog however meant it as a flattering remark and appreciation of the perfect blend of fiction and reality that Seidl has been able to achieve through his work. Delving closely into the motivation behind the Paradise Trilogy one can discover the profound meaning behind each and every narrative, Paradise: Love intends to highlight human emotions, sexual desire and loneliness and perhaps has the greatest intrinsic impact on the audience out of all the movies in the trilogy. The elements of the first part of the Paradise Trilogy are the crux of human existence and have existed since the beginning of time hence there relevance is still applicable today. Conclusion With regards to the current global scenario and the advent of religious fundamentalism, Paradise: Faith explores extremist religious beliefs in a manner that has never been conducted before; the character development of Anna as a staunch Christian and her Muslim husband reflects the idea that radicalization of faith does not necessarily mean that an individual resorts to terrorism, in fact religious fundamentalism can take any shape. Seidl’s trilogy ends on a positive note with Paradise: Hope which is relevant to the issues of today’s youth such as obesity, body image and definitions of beauty. As the journey of Paradise Trilogy ends with the last installment, the audience can definitely understand that while Seidl has commentated on several social issues and presented them in their rawest form, the bittersweet ending to the Paradise Trilogy marks the conclusion of one of the most accurate depictions of present human condition in recent cinema. Works Cited Dassanowsky, Robert, and Oliver C. Speck. New Austrian Film. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, (2011). Print. Lim, Dennis. “’Paradise’ runneth over for Ulrich Seidl”. Los Angeles Times. May 25th, 2013. Web. May 28th, 2013. Perry, Ted. "Formal Strategies as an Index to the Evolution of Film History." Cinema Journal 14.2 (1974): 25-36. Print. Pinkerton, Nick. “The Paradise Trilogy”. Reverseshot. N. d. Web. May 28th, 2013. Read More