An effective piece of writing. It's not an easy film to understand at first, but if you comment to it, it'll make sense and you'll leave feeling satisfied.
I I had the pleasure of watching an early screening of Dominion. At first, it was difficult for me to understand where the film was leading me to. I'm often able to either predict or confirm the events that happen in the story as I'm watching them. However, in this film, there seemed to be no linear pattern I could follow. This quickly changed when I began interpreting this story being told through a dreamlike lens, in which the narrator (in this case our protagonist, Dylan Thomas) is opening his mind and his heart, so that we can directly feel and understand his humanity, while at the same time, showing us his perspective from a state of drunkenness where we see him as an unreliable narrator, and therefore, have to challenge him and what he perceives while making our own conclusions about what truly happened.
The troubling thing about the way in which Steven Bernstein has depicted this man is that we are never led to sympathize with him. That being said, it's important to recognize that this film does an excellent job of showing the complexity in Thomas' story, the great fear an artist has of his own art, and the golden cage of hell within which an addiction can trap you. Again, this film is artistic in every sense of the word, an experience that made me leave the theater having to make sense of what I had just seen, but important, because it underscores the fears and traumas we experience from the things that are supposedly fulfilling and good for us; our friends, our family, and our work.
One other note is that after the screening, Bernstein offered a Q&A discussion with fellow producer Richard Gladstein. While our discussion was first based on the content of the film, its interpretations, the impact it made on individual audience members, and the challenges of making a film ahead of its time, perhaps the most crucial point Bernstein made about art is that it surrounds itself with risk. Specifically, Bernstein confessed that this film which he loves is also the source of great worry; he worries about how people will receive the film, what his future in filmmaking looks like, how universal the story is and if it truly is relatable. I mention this because it represents an important authenticity by the filmmaker, and symbolizes an important relationship between the artist, his artwork, his subject, and his audience, necessary in order to make a powerful film. Truly, one of the most authentic films I have seen in a long time. Go watch it.
I I had the pleasure of watching an early screening of Dominion. At first, it was difficult for me to understand where the film was leading me to. I'm often able to either predict or confirm the events that happen in the story as I'm watching them. However, in this film, there seemed to be no linear pattern I could follow. This quickly changed when I began interpreting this story being told through a dreamlike lens, in which the narrator (in this case our protagonist, Dylan Thomas) is opening his mind and his heart, so that we can directly feel and understand his humanity, while at the same time, showing us his perspective from a state of drunkenness where we see him as an unreliable narrator, and therefore, have to challenge him and what he perceives while making our own conclusions about what truly happened.
The troubling thing about the way in which Steven Bernstein has depicted this man is that we are never led to sympathize with him. That being said, it's important to recognize that this film does an excellent job of showing the complexity in Thomas' story, the great fear an artist has of his own art, and the golden cage of hell within which an addiction can trap you. Again, this film is artistic in every sense of the word, an experience that made me leave the theater having to make sense of what I had just seen, but important, because it underscores the fears and traumas we experience from the things that are supposedly fulfilling and good for us; our friends, our family, and our work.
One other note is that after the screening, Bernstein offered a Q&A discussion with fellow producer Richard Gladstein. While our discussion was first based on the content of the film, its interpretations, the impact it made on individual audience members, and the challenges of making a film ahead of its time, perhaps the most crucial point Bernstein made about art is that it surrounds itself with risk. Specifically, Bernstein confessed that this film which he loves is also the source of great worry; he worries about how people will receive the film, what his future in filmmaking looks like, how universal the story is and if it truly is relatable. I mention this because it represents an important authenticity by the filmmaker, and symbolizes an important relationship between the artist, his artwork, his subject, and his audience, necessary in order to make a powerful film. Truly, one of the most authentic films I have seen in a long time. Go watch it.