The Perfect Human- (read this please!)

A few years ago, a short film named The Perfect Human was written and directed by a man named Jorgen Leth and starred a man named Claus Nissen. It is an extraordinary piece of film and captures our human fallenness in a breathtaking way. If you can find the original I seriously reccomend it. Anyway, tonight I was watching the Sundance channel (if you don't have this hurry and order it from your cable or satellite provider) called The Five Obstructions. The film is about a fellow short film maker who has long loved Leth's work... especially The Perfect Human. Sadly in recent years Leth had fallen into a state of depression in his home in Hati from long hidding behind his films in which he has ultimate control- unlike the world around him. (I can relate...)To help his beloved mentor out of this state, the young film maker begins to try to help Leth.
To do so, he takes Leth's film The Perfect Human and instructs him to refilm it putting a series of Obstructions on the director. These Obstructions took place over five meetings. The director would present the new product created from rearranging the elements given to him and the young director would critique and give new obstructions and Leth would refilm. Here is a summary of the meetings.

Two directors watch original film and the younger gives these obstructions:

Obstruction 1:
-12 Frames long
-answer questions asked in the narration
-Film in Cuba
- no set

Leth refilms a jumpy film due to the 12 frames limit. Leth leaves out a part of the original depicting how the perfect human eats a meal.New vision is still stunning regardless of the limitations. Tells him that the distance between the perfect human and the unperfect is too vast.
New obstructions:

Obstruction 2:
-Film in a miserable place.
-Do not show the place on film but keep the feeling of the nearness of the miserable through the mood. Create miserable without seeing it.
-Jorgen Leth is the actor portraying the perfect human.
-Put meal back in.

Leth refilms in Bombay where he had seen a horrible event take place years ago. He films it in front of the starving people of the city and instead of blocking them out completely puts up a transparent, but visable, barrier between his acting and those behind him. A great idea right? Beautiful film making in action. But, this breaks the rule set of not being able to see the miserable place. So...

Obstruction 3:
Complete freedom to refilm the film in any way he wants a The Perfect Human : 2002 version or for Leth to go back to Bombay.

Leth chooses the first option and rewrites most of the narration and the film has a very modern view. This was probably my favorite version because there was alot of poetry about the way it was shot. Alot of symbolism in the way that the screen was divided the entire shoot and how we would see action on one side of the screen and a symbol for that action on the other. Example: A beautiful girl with an innocent smile and a black dress lying on a bed of white sheets already made on the left side of the screen and a pistol lying on a table on the right side. Awesome. But the young director doesn't feel Leth has really challenged himself yet, and since that is the goal of this whole thing puts another obstruction on Leth and probably the hardest:

Obstruction 4:
-Make the film a cartoon

Leth goes to a cartoonist and makes a drawn live action cartoon. You know one of those cartoons that look as if a film was made and scanned into a computer and the computer animated another film? Anyway, despite his contempt for cartoons, Leth turns out to be very pleased with this version and presents it to the young director. He views the film and makes one last obstruction.

Obstruction 5:
-All of the footage compiled over this test of Leth's genious and hope to cure him will be complied for one last film which will credit Leth as the director and feature him reading a letter that the young director has written from Leth to the young director himself. (Putting words in Leth's mouth... brilliance.)


Finally,Leth agrees and the final piece is a beautiful work with Leth's name on it of how happy Leth really is and is proof that Leth can function without having control....


Aren't we all older film directors hiding behind our so-called masterpieces?


Don't we all know and resent this young film maker who couldn't possibly understand what it's like living under his impossible Obstructions?


How happy are you?


Can't we all make this film?



I think we already are....



Good Providence