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Yes, Your Tide Is Cold and Dark, Sir (2013)
Amazing film
The "Yes, Your Tide is Dark and Cold, Sir" is about an unexpected turn in the life of Cliff, a son of a guitar teacher Clay Claitonowsky, that took place in a small town on the ocean. There are moments in our lives when past, present, and future come together generously offering us one more chance to find ourselves. For Cliff, this moment is a visit to the little town where his family used to live. The "Yes, Your Tide
" tells the story of Cliff and people in the town in a way that it intimately reflects to our own lives, a hidden treasure of the great drama film.
Cliff, a pretty depressed looking man in early forties, dealing with a misery at different levels, takes a trip to the town of his childhood in the memory of his mom. He is meeting his mom nurse in the retirement home and invites her for dinner. The elderly nurse, Merrill, is a beautiful work by Jean Brooks. They meet several times, Cliff shares the stories from his life in which there is his mom and he does not feel a conflict about. He is saying many times in the film "I am here because my Mom". But
the town is boiling because his Dad.
Clay Claitonowsky, a guitar teacher, whose character is a masterpiece by Robert Stuart, has disappeared with three teenager students several months ago. Clay left family when Cliff was a boy. Cliff is deeply upset about his dad's personality and did not keep a contact with him for many years.
Clay's friend, Jack (Gregory Tigani), suggests that Cliff stays in Clay's house. There are three simple photographs in Clay's bedroom, which intrigue Cliff and he cannot stop thinking about them. Whenever he goes he meets people who tell him about his dad. They say over and over again "We loved your Dad". It sounds strange and naive to Cliff. He is trying to say that he did not talk to Clay for eight years and now does not have any intension to be involved in anything related to his disappearance. From a multifaceted portrait of Clay we can see why. The guy is pretty wild, has strong opinion about things, diluted view of reality, the incident with the insulin shots is a clear message on it, but he is charismatic, attractive, fun, has great hart, and loves his students. Cliff is getting deeper and deeper into Clay's life without conscious wiliness to do so.
The outstanding cinematography of the film builds our emotional connection to the town. The old town feels warm, charming, and sometime mysterious. Almost invisible subtle changes on the screen help us sense Cliff's feelings. Every scene in the film is carefully planned and perfectly lightened. The scenes performed in the dunes are among most beautiful and powerful scenery scenes ever made. The credit for the superior camera work is going to the Director of Photography, Robert Stuart.
Staying at Clay's house Cliff quickly learns about the true faces of the old town and guys making the rules there. He is living that days emotionally so intense that sometimes he does not know what is real. He can leave the town at any moment, to go back to the life he had before, but he does not do so. Thinking about Clay, meeting the students who are mystically starting to come back puts Cliff deeply into his own life. Step by step, he is solving the mystery of the pictures in the bedroom finding deep alive roots of his relationship with Clay. The pictures are for him, screaming about something he had but lost. He vividly sees how important it was. He is realizing that there is nothing else in his life to treasure and probably will never be. His doubts and miseries are gone. He runs, runs to himself
and to the woman he loves. Clay is the film Director, Christopher Malinowski.
The "Yes, Your Tide is Dark and Cold, Sir" will captivate you from the beginning to the end and leave you think about different layers of the story long after the cinema lights are on.