Silent Light (Stellet Licht) (2007) released 2008

As Earl Hickey (NBC's My Name is Earl) would say, Karma is trying to tell me something. I thought Still Life was slow so Karma sent me to Silent Light. I was eager to see it because it has won 25 awards and 3 nominations so far. It played only one night at the arts center at the University and opened with a beautiful time lapse shot of a sunrise (I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you it closes with a similar sunset). Clocking in at 2 hours 15 minutes, this has a turtle's pace (slightly faster than a snail) with the slowest tracking shots ever. Mexico's official entry into the Oscars (it did not get a nomination) has only a few words of Spanish. Instead the language is almost entirely an obscure Mennonite/German-like dialect spoken by the non-actors who are part of the sect in Chihuahua, Mexico. Not to say that I hated it. There was much to enjoy. But if you're in a New York state of mind, with things to do and people to see, this is not for you. Many reviewers loved it, including two from New York (Mahnola Dargis in the New York Times and J. Hoberman in The Village Voice). This will be a tough one to see on DVD unless you have a pretty good sized screen and can darken the room because some shots have very little light.