Great Documentary

Last night I saw a terrific student film, a documentary about taxidermy. The movie was in a league above the rest of the student films I've watched since at USC. It achieved that thing that great films do - portending to be about a certain subject, in this case, taxidermy, but revealing so much more about the human condition through it's characters....the basic story line followed three subjects, a taxidermist, an older couple that had the "empty nest" syndrome whose dog had died, and a lady who collected 19th century taxidermy....the taxidermist himself was a fairly normal guy, had gotten into taxidermy as a family business. He had a nice quote, "It's what I do, not who I am." The older couple was fascinating. They were about my parents generation, the man was crippled, and emotionally distant. He called the dog, "it," and didn't show emotion for the entire film. The mom, on the other hand, was so starving for an emotional connection, she put all her feeling and unconditional love into the dog. She wrote a poem about the dog and they, of course, had it stuffed. The last part of the film was so touching and simple as she brought the dog up to the place where she planned on keeping him.

The most interesting character was this 19th century taxidermist collector...she came so clean about her relationships within her own family and her consquent pet obsession...she was so humorous and spiteful at the same time, putting a book her mother forced her to read as a little kid in her hands before cremating her...she decribed her father's suicide, her uncle hacking someone to death, and her own sister beating her. But she wasn't sentimental or sad about it - just matter of fact, which made it all the more powerful.

Really great film.

PS. Also watched McCabe and Mrs. Miller this weekend - amazing weekend for films.