I discovered that the International Film Festival was coming to town after I’d already filled my calendar to the point where I couldn’t see any of the films that sounded interesting, including The Last Viking, Sweet Störy, Cycling for Love, or Silent Friend. Afterward, I checked around to see if any of the movies were playing in local theaters, but I seemed to be out of luck.
However, I finally managed to get out to see Silent Friend, a German movie that focuses on characters on a college campus during three different time periods, all connected by a ginkgo tree in the neighboring botanical garden. The visuals were stunning and the music was beautiful, but I was angry when I walked out of the theater. I’m not a particularly sophisticated movie-goer, and I was a terrible English major, so if you want to tell me that I missed the point, of course I did. To attempt to avoid spoiling anything: I didn’t feel like any of the storylines ended in a satisfying way. When the credits started rolling, all I could think was, You’ve got to be kidding me. Really?
A few days later, I think I understand a little more about what the director trying to accomplish. But there were two nuggets of gold that I extracted after leaving the theater. One was a renewed love of the German language, encapsulated in the word for “ginkgo tree” that’s shown on a tag a few times in the movie: Fächerblattbaum, or “Fan-leaf tree.” It’s been about 29 years since my last German class, but I could still puzzle that out. I also wondered (when the language was relatively simple) about a few of the translations in the subtitles–why that wording rather than the more direct translation? Ah, the knowledge remains. It merely sleeps!
The other nugget was the song “Ein Gleiches” by Blixa Bargeld, which accompanies an extended shot of the (rather enormous) ginkgo tree in autumn gold. I thought the lyrics were very poetic, so I wanted to read through them again, though it took a while to find information about the song. I had a similar quest during the recent Olympics opening ceremony in Milano and Cortina, Italy, where an actor recited “L’Infinito” (“The Infinite”) by Count Giacomo Leopardi, which is apparently a much-beloved poem in Italy. Similarly, the lyrics for “Ein Gleiches” are taken from “Wanderer’s Nightsong II” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which I saw described as possibly being the finest verse in the German language. I appreciate being exposed to poetry in other languages, especially when it’s unexpected.
On a recent trip I saw the painting The Gleaners, and the word “glean” has been in my head ever since. I like the definition “to pick over in search of relevant material.” I feel like that’s how I approach the world. Looking for those tiny glints in the dirt. Prospecting for gold, even if others don’t see the shine, or see my particular treasure as trash. More for me!
Numberless Dreams 