Kumbha Mela

Boy was I annoyed with Antonioni for suggesting i sit in an art gallery screening for nearly twenty minutes and watch this. It took so much persistance not to walk out on this piece of garbage - i think it pretty much spoiled everybody's time at the screening of Antonioni's shorts that none of us got to enjoy his more beautiful takes on Rome and Sicily.

The images of this indian celebration (i was ignorant to what exactly thanks to a lack of narration or title cards or anything - but this is not Antonioni's way) are not only tedious and repetitive, but they transform what are essentially people, into what looks like a horde of invading, faceless masses.

I'm told (from online somewhere) that they were not immigrants, but millions of people gathering to bathe in the sacred waters of the ganges, the largest mass-gathering of people on earth. So it was a religious pilgrammage. Had i know that it might have been slightly more interesting - but without any kind of commentary, Antonioni just makes us feel alienated from this display of masses. Any clever critic may come along and say "well, alienation is Antonioni's thing" - but he made it interesting in his feature films, here its just nauseating.

But the nail in the coffin is the music: traditional indian music, sure - but to a Westerner, its music to commit suicide to. I seriously thought i was going to have a heart attack if they didn't turn it off.

Picture this: most people find Antonioni's Zabriskie Point to be the worst thing he did, and find it a pretty nauseating experience. I loved it, i thought it was visually splendiferous - and i'm saying this about Kumbha Mela.

Zabriskie Point is over two hours long - I would have kept watching if it was twice that. Kumha Mela is only twenty minutes: and those twenty minutes were about nineteen too many.

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