The Earth Sings (Zem Spieva). 1933, reconstructed 1983. Directed and photographed by Karel Plicka.

(3/4/01)

This was a truly beautiful film to watch. It is about the people of Slovakia, their work, their games, their relationship to the land. It brims with stunning images of nature and it is a pleasure to sit through. However, there didn't seem to be a narrative or anything to hook and hold the viewer's attention, so I don't remember many specific details of it. The experience of watching this film is for me akin to listening to a fine piece of classical music--very enjoyable, but I don't remember specific details.

The film has, in fact, been likened to a symphony and is backed by a sumptuous score. The music reminded me of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. There was a lot of charal singing which suited the feel of the picture very well.

It is a very positive, very affirmative film. It shows a simple way of life and the people seem very satisfied with it. There are children and young people and some very old people. They wear beautiful costumes and a lot of the film seems like a pageant. What they have seems to be a very healthy way of life, yet I couldn't help but think that, for all their hard work, they seem basically like children.

The film had intertitles in Slovak which I couldn't read. (I didn't realize until later that a translation had been provided.) If I had been able to understand them I probably would have been able to follow the film better and remember more of it. One thing that bothered me a bit about the restoration was that the music was rerecorded. This caused an incongruity between the grainy old images and the fresh, crisp soundtrack. In other words, the picture showed signs of age, but the soundtrack didn't. This bothered me a bit, but after a while I accepted it.

While watching this film I had the sensation that I was seeing a beautiful example of film as art.