Moving to an anonymous small town and taking up a post as the obituary writer on its newspaper Tim, an introverted young man, is shocked to find himself seemingly implicated in the selfsame deaths after an encounter with an elderly woman he helps cross the road – a heavily coded, symbolic gesture – precipitates her death.
Is he in fact the author of these deaths in a different sense of the term? Is he going insane, possibly a serial killer stalking the town like some figure from a Gothic horror film? Is he an agent of a higher power, specially recruited as the angel of death?
All are possible as time and events fold back on one another, past, present and future merging into the Eternal Present of the title.
Canadian filmmaker Otto Buj is to be applauded for his willingness to take the road less travelled with his debut film. A self-consciously challenging and experimental work, it is something that exists in, of and for itself, rather than as a compromised industry calling card like Aronofsky's Pi or Nolan's Following , using harsh soundscapes rather than techno and making use of more daring techniques like long periods with a blank/black screen.
Likewise, while certain films spring to mind in the course of watching The Eternal Present , such as Weine's The Cabinet of Dr Caligari , Hervey's Carnival of Souls , Godard's Alphaville and Romero's Martin , there is never the sense that Buj is merely imitating some pre-existing model, his film instead emerging as something with a distinctive voice of its own through its fragmentation of silent era Expressionist imagery via Godardian montage – albeit not so much “a beginning, a middle and an end, only not necessarily in that order” as “beginnings, middles, and ends…”
Also to be commended is Craig Gloster's languid, deadpan performance as Tim, perfectly capturing the sense of a man lost in time.
A film that is sure to reward repeated attempts to figure out its Marienbad-like enigmas, The Eternal Present has been self-released by Buj in a limited edition DVD. With a superb transfer of the film that showcases its luminous black and white cinematography to its fullest, an essay and feature commentary by the filmmaker and a unique film clip – or memento mori – from the production in each package, it's a quality package that again shows the sheer care Buj and his collaborators have taken.
Website for The Eternal Present: (External) http://www.theeternalpresent.com
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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