SILK

Canada, 2007, 113 minutes, Colour.
Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho.
Directed by Francois Girard.

Silk is a very picturesque, even elegant film. However, it moves at a very sedate pace indeed which might try the patience of even a generous viewer.

Set in France in the 1860s and 70s, it shows a regional town buoyed up by an entrepreneur (Alfred Molina in a lively performance) who introduces silk worms, establishes factories and makes the town prosperous. He continues to import silkworms from Japan (illegal at the time because of Japanese isolation). The young Herve (Michael Pitt in a too-passive performance) journeys several times to Japan and is infatuated with a concubine. This affects his whole life and makes him also feel guilty as he is happily married to the lovely Helene (Keira Knightly).

The film has both a joyful and a melancholy air about it. There is prosperity and failure, illness and death, doomed love and regrets. Italy stands in for the French village. The location work was done in Japan itself.

Francois Girard made two films with a musical focus, 32 Short Films about Glen Gould and The Red Violin. This adaptation of a 1990s short novel by Alessandro Baricco is more ambitious but will satisfy a more limited audience. The film is pretty but the central character and his sometimes depressed voiceover narrative conveys a pall of gloom as well.

1.The impact of the film? Its beauty? The pace of the storytelling? People finding it too slow?

2.The Italian locations for the French village? France in the 19th century? Homes, countryside, gardens, factories? The contrast with the world of Japan, its particular beauty, seasons, villages, mountains? The travels through Europe and Asia and the settings? The atmospheric score?

3.The title, the focus on silk, manufacture in Europe, manufacture in China and Japan? Trade between the two parts of the world? The silkworms, the dangers for infections, the dying of the worms? The need for replenishment? The impact on trade? On economies of villages?

4.Herve and his narrating the story? Michael Pitt’s passive and observer-like character? His slow and rather dull narration? Embodying him as a person? His background, explanations, his father? His military service? His seeing Helene? His decision to marry her? The happiness? Buying the home? Her wanting the garden? Their not having any children? The disappearance of the worker, his wife and child and their looking after them? The wife as the servant?

5.Baldabiou, his energy, the entrepreneur, his plans for silk? Persuading the mayor and the others to invest? Sending Herve to Japan? The buying of the worms? The substitute for the dead worms in France? The success of the mission? The continued missions? The prosperity of the town? Baldabiou and his ability to play pool, one-handed, the challenge to himself? His change of heart when Herve wanted to go to Japan for the third time? The discussions with Helene? Herve and his wanting a Japanese translator, his sending Herve to the brothel in Lyon? The failure of the third expedition? The failure of the economy? The challenge and his being beaten at his own pool game? His departure?

6.Herve, his journeys to the East, train, caravan, ship? Travel in the 19th century? His time in Japan, undercover? The illegality of his mission? With the Japanese, the politics of Japan, the beginnings of uprisings? Going to the village, his contacts? The lord, his concubines? The women? The concubine coming to him, the suggestions of sensuality? The effect on him? Her message? His return, wanting the translation, asking Baldabiou? Going to the brothel? The madam translating the message? Asking him not to come again? His return, his moodiness? The relationship with Helene? Her garden? His wanting to go to Japan again? People unwilling to send him? The different atmosphere, not fulfilling his quest, the Japanese lords and traders? His return? The letter? His going to Lyon for its translation? Its being read to him? The madam, the fact that it was written by Helene, translated by her? The effect on him after Helene’s death? His future?

7.Helene, in love with Herve, the marriage, at home, not having any children, her work, the servant? Joy? The garden, the failure of the silkworms, everybody employed in making the garden? Time passing, her illness? Her death? The irony that she knew about Japan, and had written the letter?

8.Life in the town, the mayor, the leading traders? Their plans, their greed? The cafes? The meetings? The religious services, the priest? The atmosphere of the period?

9.The background of silk? The film not giving much information about production – but showing the visuals? The silken background to this story of romance and doom?