William Faulkner once said, "The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life."
When sitting down to watch "My Little Pony: The Princess Promenade", I was forced to reflect upon Faulkner's quote. This movie, which almost does not deserve such a basic term - as if to imply that it could and should be compared with other such "movies" - involves the disruption of flower parade with the awakening of a 1,000-year-old dragon.
However, the plot is merely the MacGuffin for the emotional truths that reveal themselves in 50 rapturous minutes.
"The Princess Promenade" shows the typical Victor Dal Chele touches. The lyrical camera-work, complex story lines and ambitious themes immediately remind us of "Transformers: Go-Bots" and "RoboCop: Alpha Commando", not to mention his predecessor "My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas". However, his previous work now feels like mere preparation for this, his masterwork.
Earlier reviews have compared this film to the work of Ozu. Actually, the influence of a number of masters is evident here. He combines the artistic editing of Eisenstein, the visual innovation of Welles, the provocation of Fassbinder, the existential philosophies of Godard, and the frenetic surrealism of Luis Buñuel. These elements are merely jumping off points, though, for a unique style that future film scholars will refer to as "Dal Chele-ism".
But as any film-goer will tell you, style only goes so far. The reason "The Princess Promenade" deserves its place next to "Grand Illusion", "La Dolce Vita" and "Rashomon" is the emotional impact it achieves.
The story starts off light enough, making the viewer feel at ease. It is funny, often times hilarious. Then, it is revealed that the laughs are masking a deeper, more tragic subtext, and the emotional weight of this revelation induces tears in all who watch.
The third act is truly revelatory. I found myself first hating, and then embracing, humanity. And when I had unleashed all of my emotion at the world and society around me, the movie forced me to look within myself. It revealed that I, like everyone else, was ultimately an empty vessel, full of hope and longing but ultimately achieving nothing.
As I was ready to hang my hat, and admit defeat at this monster of a film, its denouement landed with a message of hope that would have been manipulative had the previous 47 minutes not laid the groundwork for this, its most logical resolution. As the last image faded, I felt hopeful for myself as a human being and for humanity as a whole.
And as the final credits rolled, I wept. I wept not only for the ponies and their plight with the dragon and the flower parade. I wept for myself, as I had not felt such an emotional charge from a work of art. I wept for the cinema, as a new standard has now been established in visual storytelling. I wept for Victor Dal Chele, who now stands tall as the premiere voice of our generation. And most of all, I wept for the world, which will never be able to match the painful honesty, blistering imagination and unending beneficence that Mr. Dal Chele has presented in this, surely the finest film of our generation.
When sitting down to watch "My Little Pony: The Princess Promenade", I was forced to reflect upon Faulkner's quote. This movie, which almost does not deserve such a basic term - as if to imply that it could and should be compared with other such "movies" - involves the disruption of flower parade with the awakening of a 1,000-year-old dragon.
However, the plot is merely the MacGuffin for the emotional truths that reveal themselves in 50 rapturous minutes.
"The Princess Promenade" shows the typical Victor Dal Chele touches. The lyrical camera-work, complex story lines and ambitious themes immediately remind us of "Transformers: Go-Bots" and "RoboCop: Alpha Commando", not to mention his predecessor "My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas". However, his previous work now feels like mere preparation for this, his masterwork.
Earlier reviews have compared this film to the work of Ozu. Actually, the influence of a number of masters is evident here. He combines the artistic editing of Eisenstein, the visual innovation of Welles, the provocation of Fassbinder, the existential philosophies of Godard, and the frenetic surrealism of Luis Buñuel. These elements are merely jumping off points, though, for a unique style that future film scholars will refer to as "Dal Chele-ism".
But as any film-goer will tell you, style only goes so far. The reason "The Princess Promenade" deserves its place next to "Grand Illusion", "La Dolce Vita" and "Rashomon" is the emotional impact it achieves.
The story starts off light enough, making the viewer feel at ease. It is funny, often times hilarious. Then, it is revealed that the laughs are masking a deeper, more tragic subtext, and the emotional weight of this revelation induces tears in all who watch.
The third act is truly revelatory. I found myself first hating, and then embracing, humanity. And when I had unleashed all of my emotion at the world and society around me, the movie forced me to look within myself. It revealed that I, like everyone else, was ultimately an empty vessel, full of hope and longing but ultimately achieving nothing.
As I was ready to hang my hat, and admit defeat at this monster of a film, its denouement landed with a message of hope that would have been manipulative had the previous 47 minutes not laid the groundwork for this, its most logical resolution. As the last image faded, I felt hopeful for myself as a human being and for humanity as a whole.
And as the final credits rolled, I wept. I wept not only for the ponies and their plight with the dragon and the flower parade. I wept for myself, as I had not felt such an emotional charge from a work of art. I wept for the cinema, as a new standard has now been established in visual storytelling. I wept for Victor Dal Chele, who now stands tall as the premiere voice of our generation. And most of all, I wept for the world, which will never be able to match the painful honesty, blistering imagination and unending beneficence that Mr. Dal Chele has presented in this, surely the finest film of our generation.