Leviathan (2012)

This is the second film in a month I've seen called Leviathan. The other was the Russian drama nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. This one is a 2012 documentary that I guess you could call pure cinema--no narration, almost no dialogue, just images and sound.

Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, Leviathan was filmed using GoPro cameras on a fishing boat. We have no information--at first we can't even tell it's a fishing boat, as it's at night, and the camera is at such an angle that it's hard to see what's going. We see hands operating a winch, and then fish hauled up out of nets.

We are never told where we are (at the end they mention New Bedford, Massachusetts, so I assume it's the North Atlantic), who the men are, or what they are catching. We hear a few words to know they are American men. At times the camera lingers on their faces and tattoos--one has an impressive one of a topless mermaid.

I would have liked to know more about what they were catching. In the credits they list the species name as if they were part of the cast. The first catch is some kind of fish with protuberant, Barney Google eyes. Later they catch rays, but apparently they aren't good eating as they are kicked overboard. Eventually a bunch of mollusks are hauled up. It would take a degree in marine biology to know every one of them.

Unlike reality television (there is a show called The Deadliest Catch that I've never seen) Leviathan has no confessionals, no people talking to the camera. We know nothing about them or their names. At one point we watch one crew member watching TV, nodding off, and I was ready to fall asleep with him. At 87 minutes, this is still a long slog, and would have worked much better as a short film.

Leviathan is more of a video record than a film, and should be approached in that way. There are no lessons learned, no facts to digest. It is just to be experienced.