[Ana, 2014] film review

[Ana, 2014]

by Dontrell Lovet't

from, [PscyhoNeuroFilmography]

Based on "Autopsicografia" by the portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa


As one would expect from any film or production based on a poem, [Ana] opens with a profound depth- a woman confessing her love of another, to what is seemingly a therapist. She confesses that she cannot live without the "perfect" love of her life nor she could without her. In a devil's avocation, her therapist tells her that humans love perfection because we can't have it and to describe her lover as "perfect" is an idealizing standard; all relationships have problems and as such, it is all in her imagination. In a turn of events, the film turns to see from the therapist point-of-view- she understands her perfectly, even goes so far as to live vicariously through her words about her lover. But even so, this woman who she loves is truly only a figment of her imagination, a being so frail yet holds so much significance in not only her life and mind but the life and mind of the therapist.

In an effort to free this woman from her figmented, perfect lover (and perhaps himself as well), he wants her to think of her as someone she once had who has left her life. This then leads the film to see the woman's lonesome and destructive life without her feminine figment, a treacherous trial where one is set free by their peers and convicted by the judge's render alone. Though with an unvarying endeavor, the woman, though she knows her figment is just that, she has declared her life empty without her, that if her life has any worth, it would be better to live with the figment than without it, that she would prefer "to continue insane but keep her by my side." 

It is in her refusal to relinquish her figment that in her sincerity, the therapist begin to be endeared by her "inhumane devotion," which his identification with her leads him to believe he may be insane as well. He feels envious of a woman created "in delirium," envying her madness, contemplating if we in our human imperfection are capable of creating such a perfect design if we ourselves have never known it. 

It is then that we see the therapist return home alone, grab a bottle of wine and two glasses, sits in chair, across from the figment in his patient's mind and tells her that he loves her.

[Ana] is a film under the influence of perfection so much so it itself is perfection, its poetics mirrors the poetry of Pessoa, where one "insane" patient deliriums are so robust, so fruitful in their dream life as to be taken in by someone who is "sane" and of this world. 

[In the Dark] a poem

In the darkness you are the most beautiful
and you are more true-
secrets pour out like weeping fountains,
ambitions matter much not, only the next day-
-you are someone else with someone else-
with me, no reason to hide is necessary,
and you’ve found hiding impossible-

Dontrell Lovet't

from, [Labial Laughs]

[Hopeless] a poem

When you have given up on hope,
become the walking dead,
the break of the flesh fails to alert
that evolution where humanity avoids
pain-

-the day and the night loses polarity,
water, that most precious essential compound,
fails to bring relief,
nothing causes shock appeal,
the worst is expect,
and when it doesn’t presents,
the hopeless only sees not a happy
ending but an ending to come

There is a balance to this life,
one that demands if some are uplifted,
others will fall,
for all the laws that life must obey,
we see everyday that chance is
terrifying.

Dontrell Lovet't

from, [Labial Laughs]

[Elmira] a poem

Cover your blush as your words of your
past trysts attempt to escape,

tell me over and over again how you enjoyed this,
enjoyed that,

why is it that still your flesh has never been stained,
how almost impossible it was that you escaped that
deviant touch man has given to all womankind-

Now that narrow corridor has lead you to me,
the greatest of the deviants, perhaps the last great
libertine retired from the anonymous exploits and numerous
sorts for you, your lifelong neighbor, your chosen deflowerer.


Dontrell Lovet't
from, [Labial Laughs]

[This Entrenched Man] a poem

The man I am now is not a perfect man;
there are flaws, depreciation, defects, wounded
Ideals and fears that I have yet to admit are fears-

-but what I have become is what every man becomes
when he looks in the mirror and first realize that
flaws are identification, desirable traits, trash
recycled and given new life, meaning and purpose-
Imperfection has set the foundation for a fragmented
mold that has found a form of love and sacrificed it
for a falsified love-

I’ve solidified this self-destructive, tragic-comic
man entrenched in his own suffering; If suffering
should come, it should be by my very own doing.



Dontrell Lovet't
from, [Labial Laughs]

[And all the Battles] a poem

If I told you that I’ve waged and lost
the battle of war time and again, would you
think of me as an invalid who refuses to admit
his disadvantages?

Would you see me still eye to eye, lead me to
that moment where I finally am convinced that
everything will still be fine even in defeat?

Would you call me cowardice for only waging wars
that I know I can win? Or will you, with all your
knowledge of falling on your own sword, warn me
that even in victory, the soul still rests few hours
and that my eyes will know many flutters when all
the defeated are resting peacefully?

If I’ve suffered from secondary infection,
it has been a case of sepsis that I’ve somehow
brought into my own bloodstream,
bright fires, flames dancing wildly to
an atmosphere that has gone without a breeze
since the last century; if we breathe, we breathe the
breath of one another, we sustain on our own
self-sufficiency-

battles will wage, will initiate,
by whose aggravation, we know not,
so we fight,
we fight for the same,
so a victory is always inevitable-

Dontrell Lovet't

from, [Labial Laughs]

[If I Shall Conquer] a poem

Sweet stranger,
lovely baby lady,
do not take offense to the way I look at you-
beauty attracts to preserve the species- in
biological terms, all men spearhead their
charge towards your pulsating cervix phallus
first-

If I do divide and conquer that incendiary
blaze burning bright and furious between your
thighs, know that my annexation is the only
spoils I’ve come to capture,
the rest of you can be given to the rest of
the bandits who’ve attempts will become
futile against our fortifications
My stains are upon you now
and if I should get up, dress and go,
It’s unspoken between us that the next
will never know that you’ve collaborated-


Dontrell Lovet't
from, [Labial Laugh]