Sleep of mind A sunny day, a green forest, a frozen surface of an asphalt river dissects a car. A sharp blow to the brakes, echoes of a vague scandal. The door opens and someone pushes a girl in a wedding dress straight into the road. The car leaves, the bride is left alone, confused, alone. The festive white color of her lush dress is inappropriate here, high heels are not adapted for walking on a swamp, tree branches cling to the veil. Lost, she wanders, accompanied by forest nymphs, until she finds a small house. There's no one inside. Depleted, the girl goes to bed and falls asleep. Suddenly the world of her dreams becomes real, the ghosts come to life. The space of the forest is unknown, shrouded in mysticism, mystery. Morning will come, history will close, it will go on a new circle, the same bride will be pushed out of the same car again, and who knows how many times it has been before, who knows how many more. This story is detached from the ordinary world, surreal, surreal. No one knows what happens when there are no human eyes. No one knows what kind of secret life can take place there.
This short work of the talented independent director Hal Hartley is not worth trying to comprehend head, logic. She's beyond her control. “Kimono” is a dream transferred to film, it is a smooth flow of images, it is a void filled with illusions. It's "Last year in Marienbad," but without Marienbad, rich interiors, black and white pictures and endless words. Hal Hartley doesn't need words at all. Mizaru, kikazaru, Iwazaru: I see nothing, I hear nothing, I say nothing to anyone. Forest nymphs, following the bride, are likened to two of the three famous monkeys - one closes the eyes, the other - ears. The third monkey is the director himself, because his characters did not say a word for the whole film. The famous formula is that if I do not see evil, hear evil and do not talk about evil, then it does not exist. Thrown to the sidelines by this conspiracy of ignorance dissolves, ceases to exist in our universe, passing into the mysterious forest world.
This film was included in the famous collection of short “Masterpieces of world eroticism” from Regina Ziegler, although there is practically no nudity here, and the only physical contact is a disembodied kiss of a ghost on the shoulder. It is amazing how the compiler of the anthology managed to capture sensuality in the smooth movements of the camera, in long plans, sometimes replaced by suddenly twitchy, almost convulsive editing glues, in interrupting the picture of elegant love poems in the style of hockey. This is a very internal eroticism, next to which even the most gentle caresses of lovers may seem rude and careless. When "Kimono" ends, it is difficult to express one's attitude to the story shown at first, because it is so detached from the usual ways of perception. So, retelling someone your dream, you understand that it is difficult to captivate the interlocutor, because it is something so abstract and beyond comprehension, something so yours and intimate that others often just do not understand. Hal Hartley had a bizarre dream about an abandoned bride lost in the woods. It's hard to understand, it's hard to convey. Not because he managed to reach the depths of thought, on the contrary, it is a very simple and extremely visual work. Not everyone will be able to tune in to this wave.