Rebellious

Imagine

written and directed by Andrzej Jakimowski

Following on an excellent film by Jakimowski I checked out a few of his interviews: in one he says:

“Ian is a rebel. 
 In what he does there is a doze of irresponsibility” 

Right on. Can rebels be responsible anyway? This irresponsible push toward the others, in “Imagine” exemplified by Ian, the push that’s dangerous yet can yield great rewards is the quintessential cinema texture. “Imagine” can be seen as reworking on an episode from “Andrej Rublow”, when the boy talks the group into following him to cast a bell. The action is a success but only afterwards it’s revealed that the boy bluffed his way through the process. He didn’t know. Yet, he knew. The same is with Ian in “Imagine”.

"Imagination has to meander sometimes, has to take risks, 

has to reach out beyond the comfort zone.

Only then a breakthrough is possible. 

That’s what the movie is about."   

“In the movie there are a few disorienting Eva scenes, 

because Ian sometimes provokes Eva to give her courage. 

 That does not mean he creates fiction though. (..) 

He confuses things a bit, but is after the truth. 

 One has to be a visionary. If we don’t have the imagination 

the world remains to us a shapeless mass.” 

Do those who push things forward know the outcome?  Do they know the destination of the journeys they push others to take?  How strong is certainty in the power of conviction?  Where does the innovation come from?  How is any progress possible?  The film does not address these questions openly. It wisely stays within an intimate, personal zone, yet the challenges of advances in understanding (and creating!) the world versus "blind leading the blind" are clearly behind this subtle tale of gaining love and knowledge.  

“What’s good in cinema is outside the frame. 

A movie is good when it triggers imagination. 

This is the rule followed by Hitchcock, 

Chaplin and also the makers of horrors.”

From a formal point of view, Jakimowski is consistent in creating the screen feeling of us versus the unknown external.  What I like in this approach is the negation of the hubristic assumption that we can put the camera and capture "the truth".  We can't.  Yet,  with sensitivity and boldness and rebelliousness we can embark on the search of what's out there.  As a result sometimes we can glimpse into the way things are.  At least some of us.