Nests

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2008)

Regular readers of my comments know I go on and on about noir and folding. When I see these narrative techniques used, I often remark that the technique is wasted, because the film has no heft once it has charmed us into investing in it.
Not so here. The thing we get from this is simple, the value of passion in art. We get it viscerally and it matters. The basic device is as usual, commitment to art as a commitment to a lover. We also get the common technique of mapping personal challenge into political challenge because you can "show" it.
The folding here is complex. Our watcher in the story is literally a watcher. We are getting a film written by the filmmaker that features a play and ultimately a book by the main character. The watcher and writer have other watchers, and indeed the woman has other attention concerning performance. We have writing or performing (in life, in sex, piano, play...) at every fold. Its very tight in its construction and effective at what it sets out to do.
Quite apart from that, its timeliness in the US is apt. The subtitles I saw translated the spies as "National Security Agency," which as every American now knows performs very similar surveillance on its citizens, also without controls, and also for political purpose. So it chills.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.