Brit Marling stepped out of corporate life
some time ago to make movies. Her
first was Another Earth (2011), which she
co-produced, co-wrote and starred in. Her second, which she again co- produced,
co-wrote and starred in, was Sound
of my Voice (2012).
Another Earth was made with Mike Cahill,
Sound of My Voice with Zal Batmanglij.
Both films were made quickly and on a shoe string. Both won acclaim at the Sundance
Festival, and both have aroused praise and condemnation. I recently watched both of
them, almost back to back, and I am certainly part of the acclamation
group.
There will be no spoilers in this
review, but I can say that
in both films Brit plays someone who has been absent for some time. In the first she has been in
prison, in the second she claims that she comes from the future, and has not,
therefore, been around during the
life-times of those gathered around her.
In both films she wields power. In the first it is the power of
the secret she carries. In the
second it is the power of charisma and mystery. Both films end with question marks. They do not
provide answers to the questions they raise. We are stuck with the questions.
Many people have found this very
frustrating, particularly in the case of Sound of My Voice. In it we
follow the path of a young couple, Peter and Lorna, trying to be investigative journalists as they infiltrate
the group that surrounds the young woman, Maggie, played by Marling, who claims to be from the future. Peter is convinced Maggie is a fraud,
and even when her acute insights unnerve him and break open his emotional
carapace he later tells Lorna that this was simply an act.
Peter is, however, so ensnared - either by her power or by
his desire to reveal her as a fraud -
that he agrees to act illegally on her behalf. But before the film ends Peter has seen something that
undermines his doubts and leaves him, utterly confused.
Most film-goers, and it seems, many
critics, are trained by Hollywood to expect answers, reveals and solutions. Classic detective and crime novels and thrillers have fed this
expectation, from the last chapter Agatha Christie ‘library gathering’ in which
the sleuth joins all the dots and reveals the culprit, through to films that
delay the ‘reveal’ to late in the last reel. Of course this is a popular tactic. We leave the cinema feeling
relieved, our uncertainty resolved, our questions answered, and often with a
vague feeling of superiority, persuading ourselves that we had it ‘sussed’
ourselves, or would have done if we just had a little more time. The solution has, of
course, to make sense, and should not depend on facts hidden from us until the
end.
Of course there have been successful
long-running TV series that did not provide ‘sensible answers’, from Twin Peaks through to Lost. But
they have also been divisive.
David Lynch followed Twin Peaks with Mulholland
Drive (2001), maybe the most mysterious film ever
made. I have read a 106 page
analysis of that film, and though it made sense in retrospect, I do not pretend
that I stood any chance of working it all out the first or second time of viewing
it on my own. Mulholland Drive is,
however, entirely self contained.
Everything is within it.
But neither of the Marling films are self-contained. They somehow ‘break
the frame’. They both end with radical
questions and we will not find the answers by viewing the films
again. They reach out into the
future.
So what is Brit Marling doing? In Sound of
My Voice she is putting us in the shoes of
Peter. Like him I found
Maggie fascinating. Marling has
the unnerving ability to look into another’s eyes as if she is inspecting the
interior of the back of their skulls. Maggie can be intimidating and seductive, the very
profile of a cult leader.
But is she a fraud?
We do not know. We
never know. In the last seconds of
the film we do not know, but now our unknowing answers are either undermined or
confirmed by what we have just seen. In Another Earth the last few frames open up new questions, but they do not come out
of the blue. The questions have
always been there, hiding in plain sight. The questions were there, but not the answers.
Some say that after the end of a good film
we know what would happen next.
At one end of the spectrum they will ‘all live happily ever after’. At the other end all that has
been won will be lost. In
the middle ground there are films in which everything afterwards will be the
same, but everything will also be different. After Marling’s
films end we have no idea what
would happen next. The
certainties and consolation of literature are denied us.
We could say that such discombobulation
reflects real life.
But is that what we want from literature? (I claim film making as literature, even if it demands its own particular form of literacy. But neither of Brit
Marling’s films are realistic. One
is certainly science fiction, with the appearance of another earth in our skies
that seems to parallel ours exactly. Sound of My Voice may
be science fiction too, if Maggie is indeed from the future. But we do not know. Consider that. We do not know if this is a
psychological thriller or science fiction. Marling and Batmanglij have led us
carefully step by step to that question and that uncertainty.
I suppose the difference between those who
approve and those who are disappointed lies in their expectations. Not knowing what to expect I was not disappointed. It has been said that Sound
of My Voice is part one of a trilogy, but Marling’s
next film, premiered at Sundance and due to be released this summer, was The East, also co-written with Zal Batmanglij, This is apparently an eco-espionage thriller, again
involving a cult, but this time by one infiltrated by the Marling character
rather led by her, so maybe the
trilogy talk was just another bit
of confusion.
Whatever; I really enjoy not knowing what to expect from a movie – or
from a movie maker.
I suppose that is why I occupy the theological space that does not look
to God for answers or certainty, but
for deeper questions and with a faith that keeps searching.
