VENICE 2020: To the Moon
venice 2020Written, directed and edited by Tadhg O'Sullivan, To the Moon is a stunning experimental discourse that involves over 130 archival pieces of cinema in a beautiful, unique ode to the moon.
O'Sullivan's experimental film is undeniably unique and obscure, but it has a good purpose to be so. The cinematic realm has always had a degree of a passionate love affair with the moon. If it's not the most iconic and influential moment in cinematic history during Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune in 1904, it's the continuous adoration and exploration in Todd Douglas Miller's edited piece of humanity's conquering of the subject in Apollo 11, released last year.
The cinematic realm is enamoured with this subject matter. Cinematic icons – such as Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Kenji Mizoguchi, F.W. Murnau, John Ford, or even Orson Welles – no matter the age, country or continent all have explored or incorporated the idealism of what the moon means in the eye of the beholder. If it is an icon or symbolism of hope, a tranquil object of love or desire, or the next step of humanity's path to touch and grasp its surface.
O'Sullivan's To the Moon looks astounding throughout. The image on the screen, from the outset and beyond, from numerous pieces of cinema ranging from the one hundred year mark is dazzling. Specifically archived from over 34 researches and employing 14 remote cinematographers with their own individual motifs for the subject, all adding a remarkable degree of beauty and intimacy.
It is this very theme, utilised through a multitude of archival footage and narration from numerous poets, that adds a powerful, poignant layer and dramatic emotional telling of the power this iconic image beholds. While the question is never explicitly answered of what this iconic symbolism means, it does captivate the magnetism of the moon in an emotionally arousing magnitude. Nevertheless, it is a question that does not need to be answered, as its beauty and idyllic transcendences speak for itself. Captured in a truly enamouring manner with a delicately poignant dramatic edge, To the Moon is a dedicated testament to not only experimental film but cinema as a whole.
