SOUNDTRACK SCREENPLAY DOWNLOADS SCREENINGS DVD

MESSAGE BOARDS

  Message board no longer active
This forum is no longer active. Please visit www.sallypotter.com for her new forum.
All Forums / Poetry / Politics / Music / Film-making / Religion / Other topics / Write a Review /
Forums  >  Write a Review  >  "Yes"
Author Post
Anna Vronskaya
at 16:18, 29 Apr 2005
Posts: 1
"Yes"
At the beginning of April I went to E Street cinema in Washington DC for a screening of "Yes".

New film. New form. New way of saying "Yes".

A film so powerful, so complete, and so beautiful. It touched me so much like no other film in many years. I cried, as did many others in the audience. I raised the hand to express my feelings when Sally did Qs & As, but there were too many other hands.

So, I want to tell it now.

Extraordinary film. All of it, acting, cinematography, directing, dialog, editing, music...
Also, a film so needed, so necessary today.

Look, I am not a Muslim, not Catholic, not agnostic; I am a Russian Orthodox living in US, but it doesn't really matter. I am just a person and that's enough. I want to be heard, to be understood, to be accepted...like everyone else. I could identify with both "Him" and "Her" as well as with the cleaning girl and even with the husband, just as a person, human being, who lives in this world.

This world today is so much "No", so much in a hurry, so much without a thought...

So rarely do we really try to understand each other. Not enough time, energy, strength... Sally Potter, though, found that time, that energy, the strength and emotions to remind us of how important these are.

We are all humans, not Angels; we are, by nature, imperfect. Even if we try to do our very best, we will certainly make mistakes, small and big ones. But this doesn't really matter. We have to, we must do our best and we must be brave as well as understanding enough to accept that only rarely will this pay us obvious dividends but more often, it will make us sacrifice. However, who is like that today? Who lives life like that?

Only a few people. Only a few people don't care about rewards, don't do what everyone expects them to do but do what they believe. Look back in history - it was always a sacrifice to tell the truth, to be different, to be yourself. For those who did it often meant a great sacrifice. And there are fewer and fewer of them today, the ones who do what they believe, the ones who choose to tell the truth, the ones who are not afraid.

Who else but Sally would think of making a film about the greatest conflicts of our generation religious, political, sexual etc. in verse? No one!

It's so much easer to do what is expected and to do what everyone wants. It's so much simpler to take the paved road. But not for Sally Potter.

I am also so grateful that there are few producers still around who aren't afraid of risk. Money, time, acceptance... They make it possible for a true Artist to experiment with new forms, new words and make old but rare words of truth to be heard. They make it possible for a visionary like Sally Potter to bring this important film to the world.

Congratulations! Bravo! And thank you!
All of you, who made this film! "Yes!"
hector vila
at 01:49, 23 Nov 2005
Posts: 2
Lyricism and YES
Dear all--

I sometimes do this, recommend something from the film world. I've been a fan of Sally Potter since Orlando--remember that film? And I've followed Ms. Potter through The Tango Lesson, a favorite for obvious reasons. Potter is raw, physical, passionate, working quite a distance away from the more contrived, even cerebral schtick we sometimes find in popular "indi" films produced here, in the states, which have acquired, it seems, a language that is a bit static, less intimate.

Now with her new film, YES, she's outdone herself in many respects. If you want to see how Shakespeare would have worked if he had been been a contemporary of ours, you'll love YES. It is lyrical, tragic, beautiful. Her special effects, all done by working with adjustments on her camera, i.e. frames per second, is unbelievable, particularly in how the camera, the lyricism of the script, and the unfolding story work together. I couldn't see the film just once. I had to see it twice, immediately, just to catch EVERYTHING in it! I'm certain I'm still missing things because I feel both exhilaration and a need to return to it, see more. I find that I need to understand it better.

Potter is able to do something that's very difficult: demonstrate how love can be "crossed" by global events; that is, how global events, happening miles away, affect us at an intimate level. Of course, in true Potter style, tremendous strength comes from the women in her narratives--they hold everything together. Science, women, love, transgressions, class, cultures and races all come together in a complex and beautiful way in YES. I highly recommend this film to you--but see it twice ;-)



Happy Holidays!

hector
sally potter
at 05:02, 2 Dec 2005
Posts: 193
Thank you
Thank you for this beautiful recommendation!
I love how you have expressed the way global events are intimate events. In the same vein I feel that cinema, thought of as a mass medium, is intimate. I try to work as if each person out there watching the film is the only one, the beloved into whose ear I am whispering.
hector vila
at 06:18, 2 Dec 2005
Posts: 2
the solitary experience
Thank you, Sally, but for your work. I think that one common thread we all have--us movie goers--is that when the lights go down, it's one solitary person and the screen, the story. It's one of the most intimate experiences we all share alike. Opening "matters of the heart," as Faulkner said, is vital--and difficult given what's gone on in film of late.

Thank you!

hector
alfonso
at 12:05, 9 Mar 2006
Posts: 1
yes
Cuando me muera al estilo faraon me llevare el libro de los hermanos Karamazov, pero tambien la pelicula de YES
sally potter
at 05:15, 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 193
REPLY

Ah. Si?
Page: 1