Ross McElwee
United States | 1993 | 114 min
Language : English
Subtitle : French
Everything begins and ends with family, observes Ross McElwee at the end of a film in which he copes with the death of his father and his grandmother, but also the birth of his son Adrian. The filmmaker has experienced at first hand the finiteness of the body and the relentless chain of deaths and regenerations at the basis of human existence.
Everything begins and ends with family, observes Ross McElwee at the end of a film in which he copes with the death of his father and his grandmother, but also the birth of his son Adrian. The film deals with time and its implications, including those relative to making films. The filmmaker has experienced at first hand the finiteness of the body and the relentless chain of deaths and regenerations at the basis of human existence. Through his brother, who became a doctor like his father, McElwee directs a stern gaze onto the limits of the human body and its fragility. Cinema becomes connected with this fragility and explores how it can possibly hold back the advancement of time. The film’s title derives from a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness who mentions that a “time indefinite” may exist, quoting the Bible. By means of a circular structure, the film reconnects life, cinema, and affections.
Giona A. Nazzaro
