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Directed by: Patrice Leconte
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MPAA Rating: Not Rated
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Running Time: 80
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Date: 11/10/2004
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Skimming Through Cambodia
By Jeffrey M. Anderson The French director Patrice Leconte is an interesting, but middle-of-the-road filmmaker, capable of telling interesting stories, and sometimes with style (Monsieur Hire, Girl on the Bridge). Yet, sometimes his story overwhelms style, and sometimes he has no story, and it's arguable whether or not he has a recognizable personality that carries from picture to picture. And so he may or may not have been the right person to take on yet another example from the Koyaanisqatsi (1982) genre of music-and-random-images. His film Dogora, which was recently released on DVD and Blu-Ray, collects images from Cambodia, and sets them to the music of Etienne Perruchon. Some of the images make striking photographs, with interesting objects arranged in interesting compositions. Other times there's a pretty movie sequence, i.e. images moving through the frame, rather than held still. And at other times, he becomes interested in things like the process of harvesting and manufacturing rubber. All in all, it doesn't add up to much, but I found myself more interested in this wordless collection of images and music than I might have been in a more standard-issue, talking head documentary about the state of the country. This way, its beauties emerge unhindered and without prodding. The DVD comes with a trailer and a Leconte interview. I was hoping to view the Blu-Ray, which would have looked amazing, but the DVD is nothing to sneeze at either.
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