Re: Last Watched
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2022 6:44 pm
Yeah, Taming the Garden is excellent, much more subtle in its examination of its subject than it might first appear, where a large number of the comments on the film focus too intently on hate for the billionaire alone and are disappointed the movie isn't more forthright in condemnation. The critique is there, but too painfully obvious to dwell on as a sole center point, instead it uses the situation as a jumping off point for a much wider set of considerations that accompany the idea of buying and transporting trees to a private reserve.
There is a sense of awe in the activity, the act of moving these ancient trees is visually stunning and inherently impressive to behold, frightening almost for being able to do it and seeing it accomplished. Impressive in a different way than raw destructive force so much more commonly associated with power. The aesthetic of the movie then somewhat sneakily aligns the viewer with the billionaire in seeing the beauty of these trees, making the desire to be around them palpable, so why not collect trees since they clearly are beautiful in a way that isn't replicable. What makes collecting trees different than collecting art, which also can come from obscene wealth? The movie plays in the documentary form, but clearly uses some chosen set ups with the workers and some of those selling "their" trees, where the people are stage managed a bit in how they are situated for the camera and possibly in what they talk about, feeling more like some of the talk is perhaps repeated dialogue heard discussed before or of subjects mentioned but elaborated on in more special detail in these set ups. Not "made up" or fictionalized, just fit to the camera space in better emphasis.
Those moments are often telling in some of the seemingly minor details, as when there is repeated mention of the billionaires fondness for his dog, where dogs as pets then carry some suggestion of seeing trees as pets, as if he's creating a tree zoo instead perhaps of a tree museum, as if they were art. The various people giving their opinions of the buying, either as sellers or people from the area where the trees are coming from, then raise sets of questions around why trees are different, who can claim to "own" one and what that might mean in a variety of ways, where utility and history, both personal and that of a specific space, are drawn out, and where there is also this odd sort of tension between taking the tree as a living thing is somehow different than, say, cutting one down for lumber or for purpose of "improvement" of an area. Jaski received some criticism for seeming to have been granted access by the billionaire, the former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, to film the project, suggesting this somehow diminishes it, but I think the access really underscores the various ideas being raised in the film, not the least of which is that in the open question of why the government couldn't help some of these people before, but now as private citizen Ivanishvili can do so for his own benefit, but even more than that there is a really lovely connection from the beginning of the film to the ending on the private reserve where we see the new home these trees are going to. Near the beginning there is a brief conversation between workers describing how happy one of the seller was to get money for their tree, as part of that conversation, one of the workers found the whole event fantastical, laughing about the idea of collecting trees as something amusing for being beyond comprehension, joking along the lines of "What's he gonna do next? Collect all the birds?" and at the end of the film, in this lovely, but too orderly reserve as we see the trees being tended to, all we hear is the sound of the wide variety of birds that live with the trees in this new home.
There is a sense of awe in the activity, the act of moving these ancient trees is visually stunning and inherently impressive to behold, frightening almost for being able to do it and seeing it accomplished. Impressive in a different way than raw destructive force so much more commonly associated with power. The aesthetic of the movie then somewhat sneakily aligns the viewer with the billionaire in seeing the beauty of these trees, making the desire to be around them palpable, so why not collect trees since they clearly are beautiful in a way that isn't replicable. What makes collecting trees different than collecting art, which also can come from obscene wealth? The movie plays in the documentary form, but clearly uses some chosen set ups with the workers and some of those selling "their" trees, where the people are stage managed a bit in how they are situated for the camera and possibly in what they talk about, feeling more like some of the talk is perhaps repeated dialogue heard discussed before or of subjects mentioned but elaborated on in more special detail in these set ups. Not "made up" or fictionalized, just fit to the camera space in better emphasis.
Those moments are often telling in some of the seemingly minor details, as when there is repeated mention of the billionaires fondness for his dog, where dogs as pets then carry some suggestion of seeing trees as pets, as if he's creating a tree zoo instead perhaps of a tree museum, as if they were art. The various people giving their opinions of the buying, either as sellers or people from the area where the trees are coming from, then raise sets of questions around why trees are different, who can claim to "own" one and what that might mean in a variety of ways, where utility and history, both personal and that of a specific space, are drawn out, and where there is also this odd sort of tension between taking the tree as a living thing is somehow different than, say, cutting one down for lumber or for purpose of "improvement" of an area. Jaski received some criticism for seeming to have been granted access by the billionaire, the former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, to film the project, suggesting this somehow diminishes it, but I think the access really underscores the various ideas being raised in the film, not the least of which is that in the open question of why the government couldn't help some of these people before, but now as private citizen Ivanishvili can do so for his own benefit, but even more than that there is a really lovely connection from the beginning of the film to the ending on the private reserve where we see the new home these trees are going to. Near the beginning there is a brief conversation between workers describing how happy one of the seller was to get money for their tree, as part of that conversation, one of the workers found the whole event fantastical, laughing about the idea of collecting trees as something amusing for being beyond comprehension, joking along the lines of "What's he gonna do next? Collect all the birds?" and at the end of the film, in this lovely, but too orderly reserve as we see the trees being tended to, all we hear is the sound of the wide variety of birds that live with the trees in this new home.
got so quiet for a while i thought everyone stopped
