The Goatherd Watches

Rating: Null/10 (5 August 2008)

After the relative disaster of "Mama Mia," I watched this. I was convinced that the way that was made was drawn from old musicals like this. In particular the first number running through the woods was from this (and copied in countless other places).
On watching this old gal, I was surprised both ways. Most of it is far worse than I remembered. I mean both that the cinematic methods seemed more tired now that we can see how limited it is. I also mean that the thing within, the story is meaningless. Is this how we think of falling in love today? Probably film romance comes through just as small an aperture now, but the notion here seems too direct.
But it was also a surprise. There's one scene I had to watch over and over again. Its the scene where they give a puppet show to "The Lonely Goatherd." Its absolutely amazing, everything about it. Especially notable is the visual rhythm which is composed unlike anything else in the project and I assume was shot and edited by a different crew.
Its a performance of a performance, which makes it unlike the rest of the film. The pace is managed differently for each of the three levels: puppeteers, puppets and viewers, but each pace is integrated into the others. Its a small achievement, but its sweet and compared to the rest of the film seems like "Lawrence of Arabia."
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.