Family Romance LLC (Werner Herzog, 2019) Yuichi Ishii, Mahiro Tanimoto
Herzog started his career at the top – with large-scale feature narratives which are among the best ever made by anyone. I should have noticed that they are also dramatised documentaries. His real interest, it turns out, in not so much in telling stories artistically as in seeking out the truth about human beings.
This film is about the commercial practice of being offered to be hired as the fictional member of a family, where one is perceived as being missing - in this case as a father. It's a Japanese instance, but is apparently also done in other cultures. Who knew?
This is complicated by being a completely scripted fiction showing how the main character goes about performing the service he offers, despite all of them not being professional actors, but more or less what they are shown to be.
tba
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 20 June, 2022 | Now: 20 June, 2022