Based on the short description and first few scenes of WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what it was I was watching. It INITIALLY appeared to be yet another low-budget post-apocalyptic ragtag-survivors-in-the-wasteland movie with, perhaps, a little above average acting. Hey, no matter how bad your own life is, watching how bad people have it after the end of the world can always cheer you up, right? As it turned out, I was quite wrong. WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW does have some of these end-of-the-world elements as a part of it, but only as a backdrop to some deeper meaning. Or so I assume.
I would be flatly lying if I claimed to understand WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW, or grasped its message or its meaning. Movies are artistic endeavors and as such have no requirement to always be literal or straightforward.
It does seem to me, in my vague way of understanding, that WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW clearly operates at some meta level in its presentation. But to that extent, though I gave it my best effort, I came away completely in the dark. I was not able even to discern if it's message was allegorical, symbolic, metaphysical, abstract or something else.
So for my own self, though others might disagree, it's equally possible, therefore, that my failure to understand the movie is a consequence of my own lack of insight or plain stupidity, or, it could be, WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW is simply a large pile of hypnotically entertaining hogwash.
So, I suppose, given the fact that I failed to understand the movie, I'm probably not in any position to thoroughly critique it. If I am to say anything negative, it would simply be that I do feel the onus is on the movie maker to provide at least SOME path or route to insight if their movie is going to make a lot of points or expressions that are not plainly comprehensible. I will observe that when it comes to symbolism and abstraction, a director can hurl anything at the screen at random and claim that it means something. If I'm going to be subjected to that I would appreciate a little help. I don't know... A study guide maybe? That would certainly give us simple people a leg up.
Taken in isolation, there were some random, individual scenes or elements in WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW that I WAS able to understand and enjoy, more or less in a vacuum.
The movie had its own representation for written language that was not English nor any other form of alphabet that I recognized which was quite well done and stylistically consistent. This, I believe, was intended to communicate to us the notion that what we were seeing did not take place on earth but some other planet. This alien written language appeared both in the opening credits and at various places throughout the film. It seemed, to my eyes at least, very well done and probably required a bit of effort to create.
Also, one of the central mysteries in the film, and never resolved, by the way, is where everyone else on the planet had gone. In the entire movie there were only 3 people, and the entire planet full of other people had mysteriously vanished. Highlighting the point that everyone had vanished is the fact that there were no remains anywhere. So we know they didn't just die.
To underscore the fact that the universal disappearance happened abruptly, The Woman character passes through a dining area in the mystery building and observes a collection of set pieces that suggest nearly instantaneous vanishing...
An open book laid face down on a table to save the reader's place, as if the reader had just laid it down to take a bite, intending to pick it up and resume reading at any moment.
A table with a wine glass and carafe still showing the dried residue of the red wine that was being enjoyed when whatever happened happened. On the table with the glass and the carafe are personal, individual belongings; a handbag, eyeglasses and other detritus as placeholders for a real, vanished person's life.
On another table is a chessboard with pieces still in place, interrupted mid-game. On either side of the chessboard there are also two small glasses, again with the dried residue of drinks long evaporated, feeling as if the glasses are the opponents in the game.
These little tableaux actually struck me as quite powerful. To me they had the same feeling as the shadows of vaporized people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; poignant, tragic and terrifying by implication.
And there you have it. That's all I've got.
I would be flatly lying if I claimed to understand WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW, or grasped its message or its meaning. Movies are artistic endeavors and as such have no requirement to always be literal or straightforward.
It does seem to me, in my vague way of understanding, that WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW clearly operates at some meta level in its presentation. But to that extent, though I gave it my best effort, I came away completely in the dark. I was not able even to discern if it's message was allegorical, symbolic, metaphysical, abstract or something else.
So for my own self, though others might disagree, it's equally possible, therefore, that my failure to understand the movie is a consequence of my own lack of insight or plain stupidity, or, it could be, WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW is simply a large pile of hypnotically entertaining hogwash.
So, I suppose, given the fact that I failed to understand the movie, I'm probably not in any position to thoroughly critique it. If I am to say anything negative, it would simply be that I do feel the onus is on the movie maker to provide at least SOME path or route to insight if their movie is going to make a lot of points or expressions that are not plainly comprehensible. I will observe that when it comes to symbolism and abstraction, a director can hurl anything at the screen at random and claim that it means something. If I'm going to be subjected to that I would appreciate a little help. I don't know... A study guide maybe? That would certainly give us simple people a leg up.
Taken in isolation, there were some random, individual scenes or elements in WE'VE FORGOTTEN MORE THAN WE EVER KNEW that I WAS able to understand and enjoy, more or less in a vacuum.
The movie had its own representation for written language that was not English nor any other form of alphabet that I recognized which was quite well done and stylistically consistent. This, I believe, was intended to communicate to us the notion that what we were seeing did not take place on earth but some other planet. This alien written language appeared both in the opening credits and at various places throughout the film. It seemed, to my eyes at least, very well done and probably required a bit of effort to create.
Also, one of the central mysteries in the film, and never resolved, by the way, is where everyone else on the planet had gone. In the entire movie there were only 3 people, and the entire planet full of other people had mysteriously vanished. Highlighting the point that everyone had vanished is the fact that there were no remains anywhere. So we know they didn't just die.
To underscore the fact that the universal disappearance happened abruptly, The Woman character passes through a dining area in the mystery building and observes a collection of set pieces that suggest nearly instantaneous vanishing...
An open book laid face down on a table to save the reader's place, as if the reader had just laid it down to take a bite, intending to pick it up and resume reading at any moment.
A table with a wine glass and carafe still showing the dried residue of the red wine that was being enjoyed when whatever happened happened. On the table with the glass and the carafe are personal, individual belongings; a handbag, eyeglasses and other detritus as placeholders for a real, vanished person's life.
On another table is a chessboard with pieces still in place, interrupted mid-game. On either side of the chessboard there are also two small glasses, again with the dried residue of drinks long evaporated, feeling as if the glasses are the opponents in the game.
These little tableaux actually struck me as quite powerful. To me they had the same feeling as the shadows of vaporized people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; poignant, tragic and terrifying by implication.
And there you have it. That's all I've got.