Wheel of Ashes
– After being heralded by Jean-Luc Godard as the great hope of the New American Cinema, Peter Emanuel ..
After being heralded by Jean-Luc Godard as the great hope of the New American Cinema, Peter Emanuel Goldman relocated to Paris just in time for 1968. Social dissolution permeates WHEEL OF ASHES, a stripped-down account of a young man's existential reckoning. "As dust hides a mirror, lust hides the self," reads one of the film's Vedanta-sourced intertitles. And indeed, while the Pierre Clementi protagonist's inner life remains obscure, the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood that offers his temptations appears in harrowing detail. In its nearly clinical treatment of spiritual withdrawal, WHEEL OF ASHES belongs with post-New Wave films by the likes of Jean Eustache and Philippe Garrel. - Max Goldberg
24 Feb 1971
French, English, Danish
Peter Emmanuel Goldman
Peter Emmanuel Goldman
Pierre Clémenti, Katinka Bo, Pierre Besançon, Richard Leblanc
After experiencing a wild life of sordidness, the young Pierre decides to quit this chaotic world, trading it for a search for inner peace and getting closer to God. During this quest, he's followed by a girl from Denmark, of whom he becomes friend for a while. However, Pierre isn't close to reach his spiritual enlightenment, since he's still tormented by visions, vivid dreams and strange hallucinations.
1 nomination.