Carlos Reygadas' SILENT LIGHT

If you're slummin' it at the Film Fest tonight, you will probably be missing the best film in town. Across the river at the giant metal box in the sky, the Walker will be screening Carlos Reygadas' new film Silent Light. As if that is not enough, the man himself will be on hand for an introduction and presumably a post screening Q and A. The screening is part of the Walker's under appreciated Cinematecta series.

It's hard to believe that Silent Light is only his third feature. Reygadas' first feature Japon rightfully earned him critical praise from the highest of ivory towers to the lowest of critical hacks, and seemed to give him instant auteur status. Critics retreated a bit with Battle in Heaven, but converts, myself included, were not disappointed. Reygadas is a cinephile's director, raising film to the art form that it deserves to be: unapologetically spiritual and allegorical visual elegance.

Although I am making assumptions, from everything that I have read, Silent Light is no less prophetic. (Riffing off of Dreyer's Ordet, no less.) If you haven't heard of Japon, Battle in Heaven or Silent Light, it is because Reygadas' films haven't the commercial potential to even make a good run at arthouse theaters. Silent Light, as far as I can tell, has yet to get a US distributor and the screening at the Walker tonight may be your only chance to see it. If it's not too late, do not miss it!