Le Quattro Volte (Frammartino, 2010): Mini-Film Review

Le Quattro Volte is an exceptional, captivating account of an Italian shepherd's life, which then morphs into a depiction of the farmer's livestock, the passing of the seasons, and rural communal life. The film is slowly paced, yet oddly the wordless 88 minutes seem to move quite quickly as it depicts ways in which people and nature are linked in interesting ways. Some of the images will stay with me for a long time. And it's an exemplar of the long take. I am grateful to have come across this film in part thanks to scholar Kiu-wai Chu's SCMS presentation “Beyond Human World: Eco-cosmospolitanism in Global Art Cinema” which asks: how can film convey a global/planetary environmental awareness?