This right here is cinematic torture at its most gruesome. I only stayed to watch the whole thing just to see if I could do it.
The whole film takes place in rural Italy where we get to watch a series of people go through their daily chores and just basically sit around daydreaming. There are painfully long shots of an elderly woman sitting at her windowsill, another elderly man sick in bed, a little girl playing around in a pond, a writer dicking around in his office and a couple of other Earth shattering points of interest. The film is a quiet one with only a few lines of dialogue being spoken as we shuffle through these lazy characters again and again and again…and this film is feature length. Being a quiet feature film, however, this is the perfect opportunity to catch up on those sheep you’ve been meaning to count…well almost. Right when you’ve fallen into a nice little nappy-poo, the sound cranks with the crash of thunder or someone screaming for God knows what reason or the ear-piercing screams of barnyard animals. Not a very funny trick. This is like your brother coming into your bedroom way early in the morning and jumping on your bed, squirting you with a Supersoaker. Not very funny at all.
I’m sure there’s someone out there who will find some deep, special meaning to the somnambulant events in “At the First Breath of Wind,” but not I. I found the backs of my eyelids more interesting to look at.
