NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Sammy-Jo Cervantes
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
josepedrocarlos
I attended the world premier of Promises Written in Water at the 67th Venice Film Festival. Vincent Gallo's third feature film may in fact be his best-directed film so far, which is saying a lot since he directed two of my all time favorites, Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny. Gallo's newest film Promises Written in Water is an extremely fanatical yet stripped down poetic masterpiece. Predictably the film has already been and will surely continue to be misunderstood for it is complete originality. Gallo's newest film is extremely radical and complex and its story is told in a subtle manor way outside of the convention of the mainstream. The films vocabulary is stunningly sophisticated and those who choose to describe the film in standard film review terms are insulting cinema and insulting themselves. Since Promises Written in Water does not follow a program which is comfortable for lazy mainstream writers, they must lash out against Gallo and they do so most often more personally than in regards to his work. Still Gallo continues to grown creatively and Promises Written in Water reveals the work of an very important high-level filmmaker at the top of his game. The film is simply beautiful. If your lens for watching films is stuck in past references or your expectations are standardized then I suggest you avoid this film. Personally I am grateful that a great filmmaker like Vincent Gallo can still exist in this world.
mattkindred900
Saw this film at TIFF the other night. I must admit I was a Vincent Gallo fan while growing up, having loved both the offbeat Buffalo 66' and The Brown Bunny but Promises Written in Water is an absolutely terrible film. Narcissistic in the worst way imaginable and grotesquely misogynistic throughout. As per usual, Gallo was not in attendance to promote his film, having instead opted to go back to New York or LA to avoid the cacophonous sounds of laughter at the puerile dialogue, terrible editing, awful photography and amateur acting. There is nothing remotely noteworthy about this film other than the running length which is a mere 75 minutes. Gallo is an original artist to be sure, but that doesn't mean what he makes is all that great. See it as a curiosity piece.Better luck next time....
armadillo_smuggler
I truly loved this film. It's a gorgeously shot, minimalist, sensitive and tender chamber-piece. Gallo is a master of improvisation and in total control of every gesture, expression and body movement. His female co- lead, Delfine Bafort, is a revelation. The DP, Masanobu Takayanagi, deserves a great deal of acknowledgement. Elsewhere, the film's judicious and meaningful use of silence is worth noting. What I think will be referred to as "the Collette scene" (the film's first dialogue sequence) alone I would happily re-watch a dozen times over. Let's hope this film is around long enough for those of us who continue to recognize and appreciate those impossibly rare examples of pure cinema.
trouverite
the best thing about promises written in water is how it reveals the narcissism, not in the director, but in consumers of cinema today. by presenting an impressionistic cycle of events that belie the richness of love beyond the walls of a cinema and providing the opportunity for an audience to re-experience them purely empathically--anyone with whom the events do not resonate is just expressing both an inability to empathize and the personal tragedy of never having accidentally loved in the absurd way that love should exist. everyone knows asking an audience to think about anything is hard. we now know that asking them to recognize their own vulnerability is even harder.
