Leviathan
Dir: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel
2012
***
Werner Herzog comments on the beautiful moments Timothy Treadwell captured by chance in his documentary Grizzly Man. The example he gave was a gust of wind that was filmed while Treadwell was out of shot. It was a simple but beautiful moment to enjoy. Leviathan works in very much the same way. Obviously film is a series of moving pictures but sometimes it is living photography, for want of a better description. Leviathan follows deep sea fishermen over the course of approx 24 hours, the sights, sounds and little happenings they encounter as routine really do come to life before the camera. Everyday to them but something quite beautiful to us the viewer, thanks to the wonderful art direction from Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel. A light shimmering across the dark sea, the head of a decapitated Fish taking its last breath, Sea gulls circling the boat searching for scraps, all simple but astoundingly beautiful here. That said, the film does get fairly tiresome, 90 minutes of this actually detracts from much of the beauty and it all becomes fairly repetitive. Filming a tired fisherman falling asleep is not exactly riveting viewing but credit due for some fantastic camera work.