13/06/2009

Encounters (and cinemas) at the end of the world

One of my Italian friends called me about one week ago: "We must go to see the last Herzog's movie! We can't miss it!"
"Ok," I answered and I went to seek it on the Internet, found an interesting trailer.
After one failed attempt (the cinema in Piccadilly published the wrong schedule!) on Thursday, eventually today we went in a cinema I could say "at the end of the world" or, at least, of London.
The Lexi Cinema is a social enterprise, based in 194b Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise, that claims they give the 100%of their profits to community action in South Africa.
If this could sounds quite original, the best has to come: me and my friend enjoyed an absolutely private screening and before it began one of the guys who works there come to "explain us the movie", giving us the possibility to skip it if we're not interested.
A little puzzled, we listened to him, who briefly (and nicely, I have to say, at least for his brave) introduce his 'social enterprise' and the movie, and let it starts.
It was the first time I went to watch a Herzog's movie and I think it's worth.
This time he went to Antarctica to shoot a docu-film about people who live and work there.
South Pole hosts nowadays a thousand od men and women - volcanologists, biologists, physicists, but even philosopers, linguists, travellers and refugees - that develop cutting-edge scientific researches.
Say that the images, especially those shot in the water under a thick layer of ice, are amazing it's almost banal, but what really make the viewer surprised it's discovering how much (beautiful) forms of life are under and above the pack ice.
But Antarctica is not just water in its different states, but also volcanos, penguins, seals... and professional dreamers. Yeah, exactly, professional dreamers, that's the definition of people who are there given by the philosoper Stefan Pashov, who is one of them and at present drives a digger.
Herzog gathers the most various collection of people and the best label you can give them it's just this: professional dreamers. Like anyone who hard-works and enjoys his passion until extremes, they get, deserve and fetch in this tag and it's easy to feel them close to you.
That's why, ultimately, it deserves to see what happens off the map, at the end of the world.


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