Triptych (2013) Treefort Film Festival 2014

Wholly cinematic film is based on some of co-director Robert  Lepage's nine hour stage piece Lipsynch, Tritych is a film that will amaze visually even as it challenges you to consider the nature of language, memory and expression.

The film is told in three parts, each focusing on one of the characters. However the entire film tells one story.

Part 1 Michelle
Michelle gets out of a hospital-doctors feel too early. She runs a book shop and loves words, however the drugs she takes to stifle the voices make her unable to write.

Part 2 Thomas
Thomas a brain surgeon and friend of Michelle's operates on a Marie,, her sister but due to to his  unsteady hand made worse by drinking she loses her ability to speak words (aphasia).

Part 3 Marie
After her operation Marie's ability to speak returns but chunks of her memory is gone. She gets work doing voice over

Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires have made a film that will either thrill you with its cinematic delights and over abundance of ideas or the film will bore you with it's over stuffed pretentiousness. If the film clicks with you you will forgive the pretensions, if you don't its going to be a long haul.

I was thrilled.

I liked the images, the wonderful transitions and magical moments such as Thomas describing God on the Sistine Chapel as being in the shape of a brain. I like that in an age where most films have nothing on their mind this film has too much. I love that a film about the importance of words plays out in such a visual and frequently nonverbal way.

I love that several hours after seeing the film I'm still mulling it over. I love that I''m still trying to find words to express what it made me feel and think. I love that I'm battling it, its ideas and its imperfections to try and come to terms with why the film affected me so as to bring a tear to my eye.

It would be foolish to say that this is a film for all tastes. Its not. But it is one for those who are adventurous, who will hang in there to the end, who are willing to let a film and a filmmaker do what it has to then you will be richly rewarded with a film that will make you think about it long after the final credits roll.

Definitely worth seeing, especially on a big screen where the images can wash over you.

The film plays next Saturday the 22 at 430 PM. Details can be found here.