The concept behind the My America series of films was the new British director of Centre Stage, asking writers what or who their America is, and to write a monologue which would represent that. It has produced plenty of interesting outputs, not always perfect but generally well worth watching. It has also produced one where a mole gives a presentation on how to be a mole.
It is a fascinating and frustrating piece. Delivered in one take over 8 minutes by actress Rankin (on excellent form), the piece discussed the life of the mole, what to expect, mastication, Latin, the inherent knowledge of how to do a back-flip within a tunnel to avoid death, and of course a key thing – how to correctly eat a worm to avoid harm (and, again, death). It is really well written and although I was trying to work out what part it had in this series, I was quite taken by the language, the delivery, and frankly the content. It was surprisingly engaging for what it was, which is credit to those involved.
The downside is that I was at a bit of a loss as to what it all means in relation to the series. I could suggest that the lot of the mole, with its inherently known skills to survive problems of its own making, is a reference to the America work culture, or something like this, but it would all be a guess. This is not to say that it was not fun to think about it after a second viewing of the film, to pick up on particularly written lines or themes and to wonder what meaning they have; but ultimately I came away with few answers.
Ironic then, because this is one of the films in the series that I really understand the least, but yet it is also one of the ones that I enjoyed the most in terms of the crafting of it.
It is a fascinating and frustrating piece. Delivered in one take over 8 minutes by actress Rankin (on excellent form), the piece discussed the life of the mole, what to expect, mastication, Latin, the inherent knowledge of how to do a back-flip within a tunnel to avoid death, and of course a key thing – how to correctly eat a worm to avoid harm (and, again, death). It is really well written and although I was trying to work out what part it had in this series, I was quite taken by the language, the delivery, and frankly the content. It was surprisingly engaging for what it was, which is credit to those involved.
The downside is that I was at a bit of a loss as to what it all means in relation to the series. I could suggest that the lot of the mole, with its inherently known skills to survive problems of its own making, is a reference to the America work culture, or something like this, but it would all be a guess. This is not to say that it was not fun to think about it after a second viewing of the film, to pick up on particularly written lines or themes and to wonder what meaning they have; but ultimately I came away with few answers.
Ironic then, because this is one of the films in the series that I really understand the least, but yet it is also one of the ones that I enjoyed the most in terms of the crafting of it.
