The
Atacama Desert in Chile, among the driest deserts on the planet Earth, remains
a place of awe and wonderment for astronomers and archeologists for its
consistent absence of cloud cover or pollution.
Considered one of the best spots in the world to make astronomical
observations, the region which became the subject of the 2010 documentary film Nostalgia for the Light once more features
prominently in writer-producer-director Alison McApline’s debut documentary
film Cielo.
Unlike
the politically charged Nostalgia for the
Light which addressed the country’s past with human rights violations,
McAlpine’s collection of testimonies from astronomers and desert inhabitants is
more about the aura of the unfettered night sky. Told through on-camera interviews with
scientists and residents coupled with voiceover musings from the director about
her own rite-of-passage in experiencing the night skies of the Atacama Desert, Cielo is a bit nebulous in its goals but
contains so many astonishing crystal-clear vistas of the Milky Way thanks to
stunning cinematography by Benjamin Echazarreta we’re too enthralled to really
notice.
Although
neither we nor the film’s omniscient voiceover narrator/réalisateur are quite sure of what Cielo sets out to do as a
documentary, as a viewing experience the film is an evocative, dreamy watch
with a near silent soundscape peppered with occasional ambient guitar strumming
by Philippe Lauzier. Much like the time
lapse photography of the desert sections in Ron Fricke’s lyrical, meditative
documentary Baraka, many scenes of
the celestial galactic ocean are presented completely quiet with only the glistening
stars as our visual guide.
Cielo soars as a purely
cinematic audiovisual experience but stumbles structurally with the director’s
own free admission she didn’t know what the journey to the Atacama Desert would
bring. Jumping abruptly from the sterile
superstructure of the Paranal Observatory and La Silla Observatory to the squalid
impoverished slums lived in by algae collectors, Cielo is something of a smorgasbord narratively, unfolding as a
smattering of vignettes linked by their connection to the Desert. Many of the testimonies, unfortunately, don’t
amount to much more than anecdotal impressions the wonderment of the unfettered
night skies rather than providing concrete evidence to learn from.
Yes,
Cielo is an admirable, well-intentioned
effort shedding light on arguably the world’s greatest spot for star gazing but
is unfortunately light on facts and high on feelings. The imagery is glorious enough to print out
in a deluxe coffee table book yet McAlpine’s film doesn’t do much more than
recommend the Atacama Desert as a ‘really cool place to visit’.
It doesn’t help that in her first feature, Cielo at times feels very like
starter-pack Werner Herzog with the far more compelling and successful
nonlinear nature documentaries Cave of
Forgotten Dreams and Encounters at
the End of the World coming to mind.
Overall if you sit back and shut your mind off before soaking in the
stunning nighttime vistas of the heavens, you’ll be enthralled by Cielo.
As for myself, I enjoyed looking at it but the film’s masterful imagery is
unfortunately undermined by a student filmmaker who wants to be Herzog but lacks his wisdom.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki