CIFF: Day Is Done
By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 5, 2011 4:20PM
This is part of Chicagoist's coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival.
Over a period of several years, Swiss filmmaker Thomas Imbach trained his camera on the environs seen from the windows of his work studio. This vista, on display in Day Is Done, includes a smokestack, an area of industrial warehouses, the loading dock of a wine store, a main thoroughfare, and lots and lots of sky. Needless to say we get to know the neighborhood quite well over the course of this 111-minute movie, because except for a handful of cutaways, it's all we see.
What we hear on the soundtrack while watching time pass by are hundreds of answering machine messages left by various people calling Imbach's studio phone, presumably recorded during the same time period (although exactly how much time passes is never explicitly revealed). The images that make up the film are striking but ultimately banal--the constant cycle of seasons through rain and snow, customers loading boxes of wine into their car, a marching band on the street, and so on. But the answering machine messages offer us a portrait of Imbach himself. And at the very least it can be said that it's none too flattering. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that callers regularly complain about how "out of touch" he is, how difficult it is for him to make decisions and honor obligations. More than once his ex mentions, "You weren't where you said you'd be," and Imbach's cinematographer admits that he's worried about his health because he's without insurance, since Imbach hasn't signed a work contract.
This juxtaposition of frankly voyeuristic images with an undeniably exhibitionistic soundtrack is vaguely disquieting. And very clever. Imbach encourages us to eavesdrop on his life and its milieu, all the while filling the screen with Koyaanisqatsi-like cloudscapes and and other time-lapsed footage. The film looks beautiful and even mesmerizing. There's no denying the filmmaker's sharp eye.
Day Is Done is fascinating--but only up to a point. The film is about twice as long as it needs to be; at nearly two hours, the effect is wearying. The pleasure of filling in Imbach's story begins to fade. You reach a point somewhere along the way when the parade of gorgeous images and repetitive chatter causes you wonder why you should care about this guy's life anyway.
Day Is Done screens Friday, October 7 at 3:40 p.m. and Monday, October 10 at 3:40 p.m.