If anyone gets to see this, please let us know if it is any good or not…
“Paradox Lake” Film: Seeing a Scrambled World Through Autistic Eyes [By A. O. Scott in the New York Times.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/movies/05LAKE.html?ex=1018674000&en=cd0e8806
“Paradox Lake” opens with M.R.I. pictures of the human brain that look like satellite pictures of the surface of a distant planet. Przemyslaw Reut’s arresting new film, which will be shown tonight and Sunday in the New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art, weaves together drama, documentary and experimental video techniques. It also has some of the haunting otherworldliness of science fiction. The world it explores, with impressive sensitivity and imagination, is the world of autism.
That neurological disorder — which, according to the film, affects one out of every 500 children — has long been misunderstood, not least in the movies. Mr. Reut has avoided the pitfalls of sentimentality and freak-show exploitation by shooting “Paradox Lake” at an actual camp for autistic children and young adults who are shown as themselves. Whereas a movie like “Rain Man” is content to assert the humanity of its autistic subject, and so to affirm the humanity of its non autistic hero, Mr. Reut goes further. The campers are distinct individuals, each of them living in a unique, sometimes impenetrable universe of meanings and perceptions.
“These kids will change your life,” remarks the director (JasonMiller) of the agency that runs the camp, in upstate New York. This is no less insightful for being something of a truism. Matt (Matt Wolf), a young New Yorker, comes to work at the camp after encountering a young autistic man on a Times Square subway platform. Quiet and a bit sickly, Matt seems to be at loose ends, and he may see his new job as a means of injecting some structure and connection into his life.
The job is far from easy. The campers, whose ability to communicate is severely hampered, and who are prone to repetitive, ritualized behavior, are challenging enough, but so are Matt’s co-workers. One of them, a brusque, heavy-set fellow named Ernie (Ernie Jurez), becomes Matt’s nemesis after they argue repeatedly about how to handle their charges. Ernie’s tough, streetwise behaviorism clashes with Matt’s softer, more relaxed approach. In the meantime, a brief romance between Matt and Rachel (Phe Caplan) leaves bad feelings in its wake.
These small dramas are presented in a low-key, naturalistic manner .Mr. Reut uses a hand-held super 16-millimeter camera to give his scenes a raw, furtive feel. As the summer progresses, Matt becomes fascinated with a12-year-old girl named Jessica (Jessica Fuchs), a camper who perceives the world as an intricate rebus, a crossword puzzle made of objects, words and stories. Matt begins to participate in Jessica’s private games, infuriating Rachel, who is the girl’s designated caretaker.
In exploring the link that forms between Matt and Jessica, Mr. Reut switches to digital video, manipulating the color and texture of the video images to give them a hallucinatory intensity. This may not be how the world looks through autistic eyes, but we feel, like Matt, as if we are on the brink of a new, inexpressible understanding of how it might appear.
By the time the story has arrived at its surprising climax, we have been awakened to a new appreciation of the brain and its mysteries. But perhaps putting it that way is too detached, too abstract, for the power of “Paradox Lake” comes from the way it locates these mysteries in a set of vivid, difficult human relationships.
PARADOX LAKE
Directed and edited by Przemyslaw Reut; written by Wieslaw Saniewskiand Mr. Reut; director of photography, Mr. Reut; music by Maciej Staniecki; art director, Christine Hamer; produced by Ken Kushner and Mr. Reut. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated. Shown tonight at 6 and Sunday at8:30 p.m. at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater, Museum of Modern Art, 11 West53rd Street, Manhattan, as part of the 31st New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the department of film and media of the Museum of Modern Art.
WITH: Matt Wolf (Matt), Jessica Fuchs (Jessica), Phe Caplan (Rachel), Bella “Jaffa” Levy (Mother), Ernie Jurez (Ernie), John Gelin (Buddha), Dan Luciano (Neurologist), Beata Tyszkiewicz (Family Doctor) and Jason Miller(Camp Director).