sneersnipe film review

Still Orangutans (Ainda orangotangos) Gustavo Spolidoro Brazil 2007

What's the point of the single take film? All they seem to do is say “look at me, aren't I incredibly daring!” Whatever else may happen the longer it goes without a cut a swell of expectation builds up against an impending sense of release. Sure enough refusing to use cuts posts the cinematic envelope first class to a far away place. But it's a familiar locale quite near to where theatre lives, just a little more mobile.

Unsurprisingly then that Still Orangutans is a debut Brazilian feature shot in a single take. Unlike the last famous one, Russian Ark, Still Orangutans teases itself to greater efforts by using an actual Brazilian city as the set. Genuine people move about the action that, as the audience expect, absolutely under no circumstances will not, cannot, stop.

The stories themselves are so so - lesbians on a bus being bothered by a Father Christmas, a woman having a dream, an old man in the street – and they all by necessity run into each other to maintain the stream of continuity. The freshest parts are when the characters walk across roads with traffic – it’s all live real traffic! One superb moment has a character do a scene on a bus, jump off the bus, waltz across the road and enter a building. It seems genuine before one thinks too deeply about it.

Except taking the theatrical cues further Still Orangutans uses careful lighting to bend time. Apparently starting in the morning the film goes through a day and then proceeds into the dark night. This was achieved by shooting around dusk. The film was actually shot six times and the best version used as the actual film. This stands out because time is being distorted without using the key element many films use to do it: the cut. Instead of being broken, time is being bent.

Quite what the point of shooting a film like this sometimes eludes this critic. A sense of urgency and breathtaking audacity is certainly gained and unlike a stage play, having a living, moving city to play around in is certainly fun. But bits of Still Orangutans seem too stagy. A drunken couple swigging perfume in their flat as they roll about, for example, a cut here wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Fighting the tyranny of the hyperactive cut is a noble motive, forcing a film to be something other than we generally expect it to be in its popular incarnation, but after it’s been done once – why continue? Still Orangutans certainly feels much fresher than Russian Ark. It's hip and funky and more than a little like Slackers. This isn’t a manteau microcosm; it’s attempting to be a live, breathing, beating world. It's just a shame that the inherent stage aspects of doing an 80-minute take are slightly too apparent.

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