The Movie
The movie is the tale of Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt), told retrospectively by Hervé himself as he moves into the golden years of his life. His tale centers around the dual lives he led during his youth, on the one hand, as a family man in a small, nineteenth-century French town and, on the other, as a traveling merchant/silkworm smuggler. The story’s primary conflict revolves around the traditional love and happiness he finds with the simple townswoman Hélène (Knightley) and the infatuation and obsession he develops for a mysterious Asian woman (Sei Ashina) he meets in the company of a Japanese baron (Kôji Yakusho).
Originally traveling there only to procure silkworms free from the disease that threatens his town’s production of silk (the primary export of the town), Hervé is compelled to return to the small Japanese village more than once. Driven by the opportunity to see his mystifying enchantress, he continues to travel to Japan even when silkworm eggs can be obtained more conveniently and even as the journey becomes increasingly dangerous as war erupts in Japan.
In between his travels and in spite of his lingering infatuation with the Asian vixen (Please forgive my seeming objectification of this character, but she is actually not given a name, and is only credited as “The Girl”.), Hervé establishes an enjoyable home-life with Hélène after the two marry. They have a fulfilling marriage, aside from their inability to have a child and, naturally, the constant guilt hanging over Hervé on account of his secret love.
Hervé’s dual loves plague him throughout the film as he struggles to balance the two, desiring both to have a simple life with Hélène and make her happy while always yearning to know more about his ‘other woman’.
The story isn’t inherently flawed, but, despite the specifics of the time period and the geographic constraints on the forbidden relationship, it is essentially an archetypal tale of forbidden love and the contrast of the safe and conventional against the mysterious and unknown. Moreover, the action unfolds rather slowly and somewhat counter-intuitively, as even when Hervé is warned that his trip will be dangerous and possibly even deadly he encounters no substantial difficulties or hazards.
Character development is also a bit lacking from the film, with the development relying primarily on archetypal characters like the simple but attractive girl next door who becomes the faithful housewife and the mysterious and silently seductive woman from a foreign country. Moreover, it seems that the sex scenes (Yes, there are a few.) are inappropriately substituted for character development. The scenes do provide a minimal amount of development, perhaps more than sex scenes usually do, and are tastefully executed, but still seem a bit gratuitous and unfulfilling, as they only deliver minimal character development.
Despite this somewhat lacking character development, the acting was commendable. There are no stand-out performances, and Pitt is perhaps a bit too unassuming in the lead role (although his modest performance suits the character well), but the supporting cast works extraordinarily well as a cohesive unit, each quietly contributing to the movie as a whole without stealing the spotlight from the story.
The story flaws aside, the movie is an artistic success, with absolutely amazing cinematography and imagery. The scenes are rich and beautiful, complemented by unique camera work and a larger-than-life style that suits Hervé’s grand adventures to a far-away land. Additionally, the clever exclusion of subtitles for scenes in Japan powerfully conveys Hervé’s experience as a confused outsider.
Unfortunately, the beautiful artistic spectacle is not quite enough to overcome the shortcomings of the story. These shortcomings, and even the rather uneventful and anticlimactic ending (although the ending does contain some powerful implications about the nature of love), leave the viewer somewhat unsatisfied and disappointed, feeling as if the movie was never able to fulfill its potential.
Special Features
Oddly enough, there are none. This isn’t necessary a bad thing, though, as I’m not sure any special features could have contributed constructively to the quality of the film.
Presentation
Fitting the high level of artistic creativity of the film, the DVD presentation is also quite artistically ambitious, and, fortunately, the ambitions for the DVD are realized more successfully than those of the film. There are well-crafted transitions among the various menus that incorporate video from the film and also maintain cohesion among the menus, and the images and music of the menus meet the artful standard set by the film. In addition, I was quite pleased to see moving video not only on the main menu, but within each box of the scene selection menu as well.
Overall
Although the story is somewhat lacking in action and character development, Silk is an extremely artful movie. With rich imagery and unique cinematography, it is a quiet but beautiful film visually. In addition to the creative visual spectacle, there is also a story of love at the heart of the film that many viewers will find attractive. Personally, I felt the story didn’t quite live up to its potential, but Silk is a movie for the romantic, complete with a love story and absolutely amazing cinematography.