Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageGambling, Gods and LSD (2001)
Director: Peter Mettler
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
In which Peter Mettler - cinematographer (for Atom Egoyan among others) and experimental film-maker - takes us on a three-hour distillation of a trip he took from Toronto, by way of Monument Valley, Las Vegas and Switzerland (whence his family hailed), to India. He generally lets the voyage itself dictate the precise contents of his essay, but tends to focus on the themes of transcendence, living with danger, denial of death, and our relationship to nature. If the resulting film sounds a little pretentious (even before you find out it runs to three hours), fear not: it is - just a little - but it's also compelling, exhilarating, funny, imaginative and... well, wise. It's that rare thing, a genuinely philosophical film, and presents a fascinating gallery of folk with plenty to say about what makes them happy, what they want, what they believe: the junkies, the Baptists, a sex boffin, a man who keeps his wife wrapped in a scarf, the molecular theorist, the businessman. But then there's Mettler's camera, cutting, sound and music too, providing pertinent visual and aural commentary, counterpoint and argument. Just as one astonishing rave sequence arouses suspicions that the subjects are being objectified, for example, up pops a chemist to explain why we may not be individuals and how that might affect our view of death. Images, ideas, rhythms and juxtapositions are made available in such a way that you're encouraged to find links for yourself: pylons, bungee-weddings, aliens, nuclear silos, carnival, surveillance, borders, bacteria, Bollywood, dreams, dildos, dance, drugs... and water, water everywhere.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Peter Mettler
Producer: Cornelia Seitler, Ingrid Veninger, Alexandra Rockingham Gill
Cast: ETH Biochemistry at Tata Consultancy Services Lab, John Paul Young, Members of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship Church, Colorado Police units of Cortez, Dant'e Amore of Paradise Electro Stimulations, Harrah's Casino Las Vegas, Security Department, Eval Steil, Justine Belinsky, the violin lady, The s crews implosion spectators of Las Vegas, Jose Alves, Herr J Bänninger, Christoph Richter, Poodle racers of Entlisberg, Christine Koch, Roger Greminger, Albert Hoffmann, Rani Mukherjee, Govinda community at Koda, Rama Temple Ham, Ajith Kumar, Mata 'Amma' Amritanamayi, Stephen Arulraj full cast
Genre(s): Documentaries
Duration: 180 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Jackson's This Is It: review
Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'
Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now