I was going to wait and post about Atanarjuat after I’d finally seen it, but I can’t resist. Atanarjuat, or Fast Runner, in English, is the Inuit-language movie that won the Camera d’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. It has also challenged film critics–who write about movies for a living–to come up with suitable praise. To wit, J. Hoberman’s review in today’s Village Voice, titled “Let There Be Light.” The last paragraph:
The rhetoric of movie reviews is a debased currency. Is Spider-Man really an essential expression of American culture? Did Attack of the Clones signal the resurgence of our own pop “Ring Cycle”? Atanarjuat is so elemental in its means yet so cosmic in its drama, it could herald a rebirth of cinema.