Woodwind (2017) User Reviews (4)

Bonifaz's journey of self-discovery

[daveedrenaud · 8/10 · 5 November 2017]

I watched the World Premiere of this film at the Cape Town International Film Festival, and the director took questions and answers after the film. The Q & A was like stand-up comedy and I wish the writer added more humour like that into the film. Don't get me wrong, there were some funny moments in Woodwind, but it was mostly a very serious movie, a very serious subject matter that gets quite philosophical, very deep on a metaphysical level. For such a heavy night, I feel a little more humour would've lightened things up.

The scenes with the police were hilarious, not laugh out loud funny but a bit of an acquired taste at subtle comedy. Ultimately, this was not a comedy and wasn't labelled as one so I won't be too critical for the lack of jokes. When you go to the theatre you often hear the audience laughing along but I think in this movie, everyone had their hands on their chins, stroking it deep in thought.

During the Q & A, the director spoke about how the ability to have questions mean that we're awake and thinking, and he's not going to feed us with his answers after the film, and what's important is our answers. An audience member spoke about the awakening of his composer character, Bonifaz. An awakening from program music. So, in a film that stimulates questions, I have a list of questions and here are my SPOILERS:

SPOILER ALERT

Who was the lady at the end? Was it Agna, Alina, Bonifaz's mother or a random Buddhist stranger? If it's his mother then is Bonifaz dead and when did he die? If it's a dream then I can't believe that this could be real? Could he/she be a mythical God/Goddess?

In the same way, who was the voice? Was it the ghost of the old Indian musician? Was he dead or sleeping? Was the voice Alina/Agna/the mother or a figment of Bonifaz's imagination? Was Bonifaz schizophrenic, mad or hearing/hallucinating a real/imagined angel, demon, ghost or God?

This is a film that allowed me to interpret how I wanted it all to be. I prefer to think that this was an inner journey for Bonifaz, that he was looking for himself and that's what he found in the end. Does it mean that I find it difficult to believe in the supernatural? Maybe. I was glad there was no forced Hollywood happy ending with Bonifaz's chosen romantic interest.

Woodwind wasn't a romantic story anyway and I was glad for that too. Though, early on you wonder whether it could go into that direction. But everything is different in this film. It doesn't turn out the way I would've thought but the story evolves in a very surprising way.

I heard a few people in the audience after the film, say that this was a spiritual film, being set in Varanasi and Bonifaz going on an epic journey to the mountains in India (it's easy to say that) but I like how Woodwind doesn't specifically take the side of one religion directly. We hear (I think) the sounds of all religions in the background in the locations which tells us that we are in the reality of today, but the movie doesn't preach to us with any one, narrow view.

It's the same with the questions where you have so many possibilities and I was satisfied with the Bonifaz that I wanted, even though it might not be your Bonifaz. Having spoken to others, they saw another Bonifaz. That is what I think is the strength of this film, using Eastern wisdom but without clichés and with ambiguity. This is a film that made me think and that's rare in cinema today.

Embrace of the Instrument, Woodwind

[adrianawebuhm · 9/10 · 7 November 2017]

I saw Woodwind while on holiday in Kapstadt. I like to watch local films wherever I'm travelling, so it was refreshing to see a film that's also about a journey. This one was about a musician who goes from the West to the East. Most of his time seems to be spent in India in Varanasi, as well as a remote village in the mountains. This is where he attempts to create original music, but he must first tune his own instrument, his own self by reflecting on his personal struggles and the pain of losing three women in the past.

Being a student of foreign cinema, particularly unusual films from lesser known countries, Woodwind still manages to be authentic. I can't recall any film like it. It's about music and art, but also explores the relationship between our perception beyond the five senses and how this connects to high art. Using sound in creative ways, such as the way spirits or mediums communicate with lesser mortals (like instruments), Woodwind channels old secrets of music that were present in the East for centuries (or thousands of years?) long before advanced Holy Minimalist composers such as the likes of Arvo Part tapped into this form in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The second half of this film ventures into new cinematic ground as an artform, when Bonifaz awakens and learns how to breakout with his own voice in music. Before that, the opening has a European or Western approach with some great classical music and perfectly framed cinematography. The visual style changes in India to realism as we are in a different world, a whole new culture and we hear Indian Classical Music. There's not even a hint of Bollywood romanticism. Just real India. Yet, the realistic poverty and the serene landscapes and peaceful people are totally opposite to the magic realism in the story between Bonifaz and his mystery to find the answer to his coincidences.

Unexpectedly, his leap of faith lands Bonifaz in darkness and loneliness, he grows disillusioned and this pulls him into a new world. This is where the film takes a whole new direction and to me the journey is complete with Bonifaz's new musical creations. We hear it as he moves on. Like his surname Ascension, he ascends on a spiritual path but there's no literal enlightenment, no religious explanations... we just watch his experience quietly and feel the meaning of his journey.

I wrote earlier that this film is unique, but if there's any film that reminds me of Woodwind a little, it's Embrace of the Serpent. The two films are completely different in style but they give me a similar feeling through their exotic locations and with their criticisms of Western civilization.

Woodwind highlights Eastern wisdom and culture

[ashrafamodd · 9/10 · 6 November 2017]

Coming from Durban to the film festival in Cape Town, I was curious to catch this Indian film made by a fellow South African. Woodwind isn't a film about Indians. It's a film about foreigners who go to India and the impact Indian culture has on their perceptions. When I see films about foreigners, like the British or Americans in India, they often fall into the trap of the Oriental cliché. They go to India and learn the usual type of Eastern mysticism and these are always created in a weak Hollywood fused with Bollywood style.

Woodwind doesn't fall into that trap. In fact it's not even totally set that the inspired philosophy is exactly Indian, it belongs to much of Eastern wisdom, that could be all of Indian, Chinese, Japanese and other ancient philosophy in this region. This is why the final act of the film is fitting where Bonifaz is seemingly no longer in an Indian region, and from the mountain area, where the clothing and flag details, reveals that he could be closer to Nepal or Tibet.

The location of Varanasi gives Woodwind a strong Indian flavour and I've read that this is because Benares (the old name for the city) is one of the oldest existing cities in civilization. There's also other places along the Himalayas that we see, which could've been stuck in time for a few centuries and keeps alive this feeling that we are experiencing a very old culture.

I mostly enjoyed how this film captured this reality. I felt as if I was there in India. While realistic, these scenes maintained the high quality of a fiction film with breathtaking cinematography. The movie moves up a gear when the character Bonifaz travel from South America to India. The South American scenes contrast very well with India and were also done very well, but I was mostly fascinated to watch this movie for India and fortunately we are taken there after only about a 15 minute intro.

The introduction in Bonifaz's home country is to highlight the musician having given up on the music from where he is coming from. Most of all, Woodwind is a critic of the Western approach to art (using music as the prime example) and goes as far as hinting that European art has failed as a medium to transform humanity. Then it contrasts that to the Eastern approach and we notice what its like for Bonifaz to follow this new, humble path as an artist that isn't directed by the ego of an artist that desires halls of fame.

What I like is that Bonifaz doesn't walks this new way in a clichéd manner. He still retains much of his own style and in his new music he creates a fusion of Asian and Western music. He doesn't play the santoor like an Indian or Persian, but does so in a way that reflects himself.

So, I found the variety in the soundtrack to be very interesting with the Indian Classical Music, some great European classicals and also then the new music created by Bonifaz.

All in all, I think Woodwind offers a new perspective not just from cinema but also honours the value of Indian and Asian culture and art to the world. For once it was great to see an Indian film that doesn't measure its value by using Hollywood as the ideal, and so the style of the film complements the message and experience of Bonifaz.

Powerful performance by Taub in fascinating character study

[patriciasmaynard · 9/10 · 7 November 2017]

I watched Woodwind on both the occasions it was screened at the Cape Town festival. The second time I had to wait about 50 minutes to watch my favourite scene of the movie again. I loved what came before and after it too, but it's normal when you don't have a DVD of the film yet, that you look forward to one scene so much, and anticipate what your friends think of it.

I felt that way for the scene when Bonifaz (played by Leandro Taub) talks to himself in isolation. It's like a scene in a metaphorical cave that could be in a different reality from the rest of the film. Literally, we simply see that it's in the same reality but this cave analogy is how I like to describe it in my mind. And the way Woodwind encourages our feelings, I can't be wrong to dream up my own personal view. This scene is just so powerful! Bonifaz doesn't talk to himself in your typical schizophrenic or madman moment like Psycho or Taxi Driver. Instead we are not told who or what he is talking to, but Taub's performance here is magical. It is extraordinary. He is not overacting what others might in a very difficult monologue (or dialogue) but he keeps it simple and it becomes wonderful.

When set alongside other scenes beside it in this ''cave'' you feel how awe-inspiring it is. These isolation scenes remind me of films by Polanski such as The Tenant or Repulsion, but the art design is more minimalism here (probably to go with the music that this composer learns). And then I don't know if it's a coincidence but Taub's acting in Woodwind also reminds me of Adrien Brody in The Pianist (another Polanski film). Taub is great throughout this film and owns Bonifaz the way Brody owned Szpilman (another musician)!

At first Bonifaz may not seem like a likable person because he is leaving the women he is living with, Alina (his wife or girlfriend?). Alina is played by Andrea Christina Furrer who's performance of dejection is superb in the lighthouse. The way she balances her mixed feeling of mocking Bonifaz's silly notion of wanting to meet a stranger in India, together with the realization that Bonifaz could believe his journey has a mysterious mark of destiny to meet her replacement... and this coming from a Bonifaz who doesn't believe in anything.

I love the way their breakup is shot on the rocks at the beach and then their positions mimic that in bed thereafter. You have to see it to notice what I mean, in a film with some very interesting choices of camera with long takes you feel like you live in these moments.

I was saying that Bonifaz may not seem likable because of this move, but its a brave leap of faith (even for an unbeliever of sorts) and as the film progresses, you gradually realise why he was struggling with himself, the pain he feels for leaving Alina, and his mother. There's a clever mirror here between the mother and the two female characters, the other played by Jasmin Jandreau. It might seem he is haunted by Alina, but it may be deeper that he is haunted by his mother... and how much of an impact does his mother's death have on the strange experiences he encounters thereafter?

Woodwind is a fascinating study of this psychology and the belief of how humans can be connected (beyond the physical). Is it a soul connection or just random coincidences? This is one of the questions that troubles Bonifaz from South America to India. I feel that there's far too many patterns in the coincidences for them to be meaningless, but that's how I see meaning in the small details and life in general.