Valse Triste

A dreamlike, melancholic collage that drifts through memory and loss, asking you to surrender to its slow, sad rhythm.

Directed by

Bruce Conner

Genres

Drama

Overview

With a similar dreamy mood like its predecessor "Take the 5:10 to Dreamland" (1976) this clip starts with a boy getting into his bed. The camera zooms in into the boy's mind and a slow, sad waltz (i.e."Valse Triste") accompanies images of a locomotive, a miner, the globe, the sky, a sheep heard, etc. Disparate elements, but if one concentrates only at the movement of the figures, one can perceive a commotion, slowly livening up: The starting wheels of the heavy locomotive, the tired miner pushing the heavy cart of coal bricks, the globe smoothly turning around and around, the clouds imperceptibly floating in the sky, the sheep idly moving in the herd, etc. We reach the first climax when a mannequin opens her coat like a flower. The second big crescendo spurts out from a "water hose", after watching schoolgirls doing gymnastics for quite a while. A sad, but nostalgic aftertaste lingers in the end when funeral cars drive away through a flooded area…

How it feels

Melancholic, eerie, dark and warm. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Memory, grief, isolation, coming-of-age

Content

Mild violence and sexual content. No gore or swearing.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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