|
"Mettler has tuned himself to the world. His camera is like
a musical instrument. Always receptive to the unexpected, he follows
invisible currents to eavesdrop on the miracles of daily life
and rediscovers wonder."
Peter Weber, Swiss Novelist
"Mettler is an
incomparable talent in Canadian cinema. The innovation and audacity
of his work, his dedication to the cinematic art form, and his
ability to conjure up images that remain permanently etched in
one's mind, secures his place as one of this country's most distinguished
contemporary filmmakers."
Piers Handling, Director of the
Toronto International Film Festival Group
“…like the philosophers who seem to
be his constant companions, he is always open to the wonder of
an unpredictable result…Deeply rooted in multiple cultural
communities, multiple languages, multiple ways of seeing the world—…
Peter Mettler posits global cinema as a constant search and a
constant experiment… “
Of This Place and Elsewhere, The Films
and Photography of Peter Mettler
By Jerry White
EYE MAGAZINE
September 5, 2002
“…Gambling, Gods and LSD becomes a sort of divine
sacrament, melting the viewer’s synapses with a mesmerizing
array of sights, sounds and genuinely profound insights. At three
hours Gambling, Gods and LSD is demanding, but it ranks with the
most visionary work of Chris Marker and Joris Ivens.” ****
Jason Anderson
THE TORONTO STAR
September 15, 2002
“Following his lens along with his instincts, Toronto filmmaker
Peter Mettler (Picture Of Light) went to the other side of the
earth in pursuit of people's varied experiences of transcendence.
The three-hour diary documentary… is as visually entrancing
as it is thematically arresting…”
Geoff Pevere
MACLEAN’S
February 17, 2003
“Gambling, Gods and LSD plays like a meditation in the flesh,
and it’s luxuriously trippy. You don’t watch it so
much as sink into it. The images wash over you with the real-time
rhythm of flowing water. It’s as if Mettler has gone fly-fishing
in the stream of consciousness, and been pulled under…
“Visionaries such as Norman McLaren, Michael Snow –
and Peter Mettler – remind us that cinema can still be a
revolutionary art, and that Canadians often feel most at home
on its cutting edge.”
Brian D. Johnson
CINEMASCOPE
“Gambling, Gods and LSD is a journey to the four corners
of the world but also into the most profound recesses of the human
spirit…Mettler shows us so many spectacular things, that
if it weren’t for the ruminative pace, one could easily
be overwhelmed… The film forms a living, breathing organism
in which every part relates to the other. Things literally dissolve
into other things: a leaf-dappled river into blips on a radar
screen, a waterfall into a rave…
In a poignant moment, an off-screen voice asks Mettler what the
film means, and Mettler’s answer is swallowed up by the
raging chatter of insects. Ultimately, of course, the film speaks,
vividly and articulately, for itself.”
Jason McBride PICTURE OF LIGHT
“An extraordinary piece if filmmaking.
In an era when only one movie in a hundred has a single moment
of visionary power, Peter Mettler’s PICTURE OF LIGHT is
bursting with them…this is a film that takes you places
you have never been.”
John Powers Vogue Magazine
“A poetic and existential exposition of the purest wonder”
John Tucker Hour
“...a documentary expedition to film the northern lights...
the narrative innovation and esthetic brilliance of a good drama...
achieves amazing results”
Brian Johnson Maclean’s
MagazineOTHER FILMS
“An extraordinary tapestry of perception. Authoritative
and inquisitive, Balifilm is a rewarding exploration of cinema’s
unique fusion of sound, silence, and vision”
Take One MagazineTHE TOP OF HIS
HEAD
"Much as you accept the flow of notes in a piece of music,
never demanding "common sense," so can you learn to
accept the flow of Mettler's vision. There is a "sense"
but it is uncommon, indeed it is extraordinary."
Denis Sequin, METROPOLIS
"Writer-director Peter Mettler is better known as one of
this country's finest cinematographers, and THE TOP OF HIS HEAD
is certainly one of the most visually stunning films ever made
in Canada. It is also one of the most remarkable films of the
year -- from any country."
Amnon Buchbinder, Programmer,
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
"THE TOP OF HIS HEAD goes to the head of the class...by telling
a post-apocalyptic fairy tale...The images are dazzling. Forced
telephoto perspectives on industrial wastelands jar the eye. Extreme
close-ups turn a drop of water into a micro-universe. People are
molded like sculptures through the juxtaposition of surprising
objects. Other flourishes turn the film into a work of visual
genius...Even more boldly Mettler lets fleeting glimpses of parallel
and past realities intercut into present time, suggesting fragmented
memories. That technique has often been used in films -- but rarely,
if ever, this effectively, this fluidly...This is not just a pop-culture
divertissement. Mettler shakes viewers up with his compelling
tale. THE TOP OF HIS HEAD has a purpose to its passion."
Bruce Kirkland, THE TORONTO SUN
"From a purely technical point of view, THE TOP OF HIS HEAD,
with its whirling images is a visually powerful film, but upon
closer examination, this film says far more visually than it would
be possible to say verbally without sinking into a numbing diatribe."
Jason Brent, THE GARGOYLE
"Weaving sequences of exhilarating images -- from abstract
lichen patterns to satellites spinning in space -- into its narrative
fabric, THE TOP OF HIS HEAD stitches them together with the chopped
logic of right-brain thinking or multi-channel TV." Cameron
Bailey, NOW MAGAZINE.
“Like a free fall from a plane…this
is a film of strange beauty and extraordinary power”
Laurinda Hartt Cinema Canada
|
|
