Far Side of the Moon (2003)

La Face cachée de la lune is a brilliant Canadian film which has human being's fascination for moon as its backdrop.It is for this purpose that we are taken to 1950s when efforts were being made to send a man to moon.We witness how two major scientific powers America and Russia do all that they can in order to outdo each other.All this is done by them so that somebody is able to establish supremacy in all matters related to travel on moon."La face cachée de la lune" is a film for which Canadian auteur Robert Lepage has got complete command as he does more than one cinematographic function.This is also something of a very special film for Robert Lepage as he adapted his own play to create a film version.He has confessed on numerous occasions that this is a film which is very much close to his heart.Complexities of human relationships are also explored by Robert Lepage as his film revolves around two brothers who do not have much in common.Apart from this film's story and innovative plot,Robert Lepage's acting abilities are the best thing to watch in this film.They will really give a nice idea about this great artist's genius.

If you have never seen any of Lepage's work before, this is a good place to start. You will be entertained, educated and amazed by this movie that was created on a shoe-string budget. The movie is packed full of simple, but effective visuals that don't take over the movie, but seamlessly take you on a journey. I particularly liked the Green Screen effects, which (to the untrained eye) are seamless. The final scene in the airport with the large Aim Higher backdrop was the cream of the crop. I also thought that some of the transitions were simple, yet stunning. It is 'one of those films' you would normally find yourself watching on your own one afternoon. It's not for everyone, but if you are open minded, don't mind subtitles and want some light entertainment then this movie will not disappoint.

Unlike the ancient notion that the moon is a mirror of the Earth's surface, modern space exploration and satellite imagery have revealed that the moon is a large cratered rock with the far side permanently turned away from the Earth. In Quebecois director Robert Lepage's film Far Side of the Moon, the moon's far side serves as a metaphor for the divide that separates two brothers, each with a different sexual orientation. Based on a one-man stage play by Mr. Lepage, it is both a history of man's exploration of the surface of the moon and the inner exploration of two individuals who are trying to put their life in order after the death of their mother (Anne-Marie Cadieux).Shot in fifteen days in digital video using dissolves and CGI, the film creates a dazzling confluence of reality and fantasy that moves effortlessly between past and present utilizing delightful, surreal effects that form a bridge between the Earth and the cosmos. Philippe looks at the window of a washing machine and sees the vastness of space, a trip into the stomach of a pregnant mother turns a fetus into a tiny astronaut connected to his craft, the stacking of bottles in a restaurant becomes the launching of a space mission, and a man walking on snow becomes an explorer on the moon. The two brothers, Philippe and André, are performed in a dual role by the director. Philippe is an unhappy dreamer with no relationship and no profession.He works as a telephone solicitor for the Montreal newspaper Le Soleil but is clearly distracted and makes personal calls to his ex-girlfriend (Céline Bonnier) and his brother that cause his employer consternation. His younger brother André, a gay man, is a weatherman for the local television station and maintains an ongoing relationship with Carl (Marco Poulin). More carefree than Philippe, he is preoccupied with disposing of his mother's possessions. Philippe is a perennial student who, at age forty, is still seeking approval for his Doctoral dissertation which argues that man's desire to explore space is built, not on discovering the mystery and wonder of the universe, but on his own narcissism - his act of self-projection.When Philippe's thesis is again rejected by his Doctoral committee, however, he seeks other avenues for recognition but they lead only to humiliation. He is treated rudely by guards when he wants to give a copy of his paper to former Russian cosmonaut Alexi Leonov; is thrown out of a late night bar for being loud and drunk; has an embarrassing meeting with Carl at a sauna, and when he receives an invitation to present his paper at a symposium in Moscow, ridiculously forgets to adjust his watch to local time and faces an empty theater. Finally given a chance to showcase his creative talent when he is accepted as a participant in a SETI project to collect home videos to send into space, he limits his film to showing his apartment while rambling about his life and his video lacks poetry or self awareness.As Philippe's life becomes increasingly dysfunctional, and his estrangement with André more pronounced, a suddenly discovered secret brings the two brothers together. Like the scarred far side of the moon, their lives have sustained repeated impacts which they have kept well hidden. Now that their scars are revealed, a huge burden has been lifted, and, with the aid of CGI, Philippe's weightless body can ascend into space. Far Side of the Moon is entertaining and highly imaginative and I would recommend it, yet there is little emotion in the film and, for all its transcendental motifs, I found it to be lacking a sense of the mystery and wonder of either outer or inner space.

For people in the Theatre community, Lepage is a much heralded genius. But the nature of theatre is that you have to be in the right place at the right time to see his work. With this movie he has etched a beautiful masterpiece for world wide viewing (granted it gets a decent release). I'm not sure if it's just my enthusiasm from having seen the play but the story was just one that I felt I wanted to embrace again. The stage play was so cinematic that a movie seemed inevitable, and the transitions between scenes were even enhanced through the use of a camera rather than stage. This is really too biased to be a review, but if you haven't seen it, you really should.