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Sigur Rós’ “Leaning Towards Solace” [short film] Author: Dianna Agron · December 13th, 2012

Sigur Rós. Elle Fanning. John Hawkes. Floria Sigismondi.

There is something about this Icelandic band (Sigur Rós) that takes you to a different place. Close your eyes, listen….and you’ll go there. Or watch this short film, and you will see beautiful images of a heartbroken man, and a young dreamer, thanks to director Floria Sigismondi. She’s notorious for helming projects for the likes of Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Marilyn Manson, The White Stripes….many more. John Hawkes you might recognize from ‘American Gangster’ or ‘Deadwood,’ Elle Fanning from ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ or ‘Somewhere,’ perhaps even my favorite, ‘Phoebe in Wonderland.’ Now that I’ve summed up the players to concise little packages (they are known for oh-so-much-more) shall we proceed?

Press play.

He sits at a bar with a scotch. She dance through the rubble of a broken down house. And then……

Well, you’ll see. When you watch and listen.

Have you gotten to the end yet?

Here’s a thought. Can you reference a poem that this reminds you of and share it here with us? Or share the way this makes you feel?

What are you afraid of? What aren’t you afraid of?

[Note: This film is a part of the Valtari Mystery Film Experiment. Sigur Rós have given a dozen film makers the same modest budget and asked them to create whatever comes into their head when they listen to songs from the band's new album Valtari. The idea is to bypass the usual artistic approval process and allow people utmost creative freedom. Among the filmmakers are Ramin Bahrani, Alma Har'el and John Cameron Mitchell.

The band explains:

"We never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. we don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. with the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. none of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it will be interesting." - Sigur Rós, May 2012]

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Comments

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Joy
This is what I’ve been talking about. These are the kind of art films that I used to watch in the university. Thank you, thank you for bringing it here.
Joy
It’s like a mini-Cloud Atlas. No, I haven’t seen the movie, just the trailer. =)
http://twitter.com/__Batman_____ Batman
<3
Raquel
This was seriously amazing! I haven’t seen art films like this in a while and its nice to know that people can still capture this type of emotion!
AWhite
She dances in the rubble of a broken home, he drinks his scotch dry. His fear of being unable to be the right kind of father lost him his little girl, his fear that the life he could have is nothing in a world where everything can seem to go so wrong made it all go wrong.
In the end you have to get over the fear and learn to love before it’s too late…because if you live your life in fear of how badly things can turn…how badly things can make your tears run…how alone you might end up…then it’s not really a life.
Living between the spaces to escape the harsh moments seems like a great idea until it happens. Drinking to escape leads him to his greatest loss. Now Sara must learn from her fathers mistakes. Love Everything is a lesson he learnt too late but she learnt at just in time…
Don’t be afraid – love everything. Live for the moment and the movements. Embrace the hurt and pain. Take it all into yourself and fight. Fight for the people who seem too lost in the space, strive to get to them, to pull them back and guide them through their fears. Fight to love them even if they can’t seem to love themselves. Fight for their soul.
http://twitter.com/mcferns21 Molly
This was amazing. It reminded me of a poet by the name of Tracy K. Smith. Her collection “Life on Mars” is one of the best contemporary collections that I’ve ever read. All the references to space and those places in between that were in this film are strewn through out her poems. Furthermore, the entire collection is a sort of elegy to her father, hence why this video reminded me of her. Check out “My God It’s Full of Stars” if you haven’t already.
ivy
Sigur Ros is wonderful. Heard about them from my brother-in-law, while we were driving around in the car. I love music like this when you’re on a slightly long trip. Made me actually cry. Tears almost started once I began to see her passion towards what she was doing. “I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid.” It’s just relatable. Made me think of how people can want to accomplish something, and even though they’re afraid, they will still do it anyway. The line that got the tears falling, it’s something that I always tell myself, “Don’t be afraid. Love everything. Love everything.” you said to share what it reminds you of, and it reminds me of a quote that apparently James Dean said, “Only the gentle are ever really strong.” It seems that to love, you got to have a lot of courage. This video is inspiring in a way to encourage you to do just that. Cause, y’know, love can be scary.
http://twitter.com/MsReginaFalange Dina Bas
He is simply amazing. I’ll never forget the first time I heard from him. It was the video from the Abbey Road Studios and he was singing Ara Batur.
Is anybody else watching all the other short-movies from this project now? I’m currently at film #6 and can I just say: wow!
These are incredibly inspiring! The entire project is pure genius. Love it!
Guest
This reminded me instantly of Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”.
At the beginning she’s wandering lonely as a cloud.
At the end, when she finally smiles, she’s happy because she’s found the daffodils.
And the old man reminds me of the poet who’s lying on the couch, and he’s like asking the girl to never stop using her imagination but at the same time to try to find the beauty that lies beneath the things.
http://www.facebook.com/lugli.valentina Valentina Lugli
oops, I posted the comment as a guest
Stephanie Diaz
For some reason i can’t picture you, Diana, listening to this kind of music. Nice!
http://www.facebook.com/kaily.russell Kaily Russell
Finally got around to watching that and I loved it. It gave me goosebumps. Sigur Rós’ music always seems to make me feel sad and yet I find it so easy to lull myself to sleep while listening to it, especially when I need it most. I’m surprised to say it actually made me cry. Maybe because it reminds me so much of myself and my own struggles and insecurities. The part in which he says “If only I could move in and out of nonexistence, to a space between places, space.” is in a way something I have thought of.
More so because I find my fear of allowing myself to feel alive, to let myself heal and to let myself love or let myself be loved. Feels like something I’m not allowed to have. So instead of being that type of burden to others, being in a state of nonexistence, I wouldn’t let anybody else down. I wouldn’t let myself down.
On the other hand, SIgur Rós’, Varúð, make’s me want to yell at the world, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to be alive. I want my existence to be alright. Instead of always feeling like I need approval from others that it’s alright for me to be here, to live.
When he says “Fear only brings death to the soul.” followed by him saying “I know that now.” Reminds me that if I continue to be afraid then I’m never going to actually live, if I don’t stop being afraid I’m not going to realize my dreams and the life I want to have. That if I stop being so afraid of the world there’s really so much more to living. It’s like an ongoing war one has with themselves. I just seem to be lacking in such courage.
And in the end it reminds me of so many poems I have written. But most of all reminds me of a quote from This Is Where I Leave You, that says, “I’m making a concerted effort to be less fucked-up.”
Yet, I found some amount of courage to explain what the video made me feel and wrote it down and shared it without going back and deleting it.

Francesco
Hello!
Beautiful and interesting your comment.
I’de like to know all the words (father) that are said in the film, I can not understand them.
Can you write, please? Thank you very much
Francesco (Italy)

Cas
I just wanted to say that I honestly was not expecting this to make me tear up and if I wasn’t the type of person who keeps their emotions locked up and hidden away, then I would have probably been sobbing towards the end. I want to say more than that but one of my fears is actually voicing my thoughts and my feelings because I’m scared it might come out wrong or not make any sense. Perhaps just posting this comment, whether people read it or not, is a step closer to over coming that little fear…especially since I never comment on anything no matter how badly I want to. Anyways, I guess I’ll just end this by saying thank you. xoxo <3
Oh btw I was terrified to even post this and I sat here for about an hour deleting things and re reading it over and over again just to make sure it sounded ok…and my apologies if there's errors and things like that.
bri
“Love everything. Fear only brings death to the soul.”
Deep.
TammyDM
I don’t anything “deep” to offer, but I loved this. The music, to me, really added to the characters and the what was happening to them both. I’m glad I watched it and I loved the ending quote…”Love everything. Fear only brings death to the soul.” Awesome.
TyghTy
Timed. Out of all the things in this world; age is one of the only things always to last forever.
It is impossible to waist something you have Allready spent
The air of caution is advised
You know what doesn’t really always help me sleep?
Getting tireder
…
Inka
that was wonderful
jiminy Cricket
I just found this site by searching for the quote “fear only brings death to the soul”. I’ve found this at the perfect time – at the moment I’m going through bereavement for my mam who died 7 months ago, and for the last month I have been struggling with panic and anxiety aka pure fear if what’s to come ahead, pure fear of living now that I don’t have her to look after and that I’m now free to start living my life. It’s amazing how you can be afraid of living when it’s all you’ve wanted for so long. I’m only 27 and have a full life ahead of me but it only starts now – what a strange age to begin your life! I will get over the fear and live the life my mam never got to have. This song ans Sigur Ros are amazing, it’s true, you do enter a different more peaceful place when you listen to them. I wish everyone to be released from their fears and live a happier life for the quote mentioned above is perfect.
di’s angel
Breathtaking
http://www.youtube.com/furiousgal87 christina
sorry that it’s taken me so long too actually watch this but it was breathtaking. like i don’t even know what to think, but my mind was just blown. it just made me feel so many different things. it made me realize that i’m afraid of letting life pass me by and never really living because i’m too scared to go after my dreams because i’m afraid of not making it or disappointing my parents. i’m afraid of not feeling everything, loving everything. of getting too cynical because life isn’t always easy. i’m afraid of being ordinary when i want extraordinary things out of life. i’m afraid of waking up one day and regretting all of my decisions, wishing i’d have been braver. i’m afraid i’m not strong enough to be that brave, to pursue what i love, and then realizing someday i have no one to blame for it but myself. i’m afraid to take that leap of faith and dream without limit of what my future could be if i follow those dreams. but i know that i want to try. i’d rather try and fail then not try at all.
Hannah Forster
For a reason, rather unknown to me, I couldn’t help but remember a hidden untitled track on the ‘Sing The Sorrow’ album by AFI.
“We held hands on the last night on Earth.
Our mouths filled with dust.
We kissed in the fields and under trees,
screaming like dogs and bleeding dark into the leaves.
It was empty on the edge of town, but we knew everyone
floated along the bottom of the river.
So we walked through the waste where the road curved into sea
and the shattered seasons lay,
and the bitter smell of burning was on you like a disease.
In our cancer of passion you said,
“Death is a midnight runner”.
The sky had come crashing down like the news of an intimate suicide.
We picked up the shards and formed them into shapes of stars,
that wore like an antique wedding dress.
The echoes of the past broke the hearts of the unborn,
as the Ferris wheel silently slowed to a stop.
The few insects skittered away in hopes of a better pastime.
I kissed you at the apex of the maelstrom and asked
If you would accompany me in a quick fall,
But you made me realize my ticket wasn’t good for two. I rode alone.
You said “The cinders are falling like snow”.
There is poetry in despair and we sang with unrivalled beauty;
Bitter elegies of savagery and eloquence of blue and grey.
Strange, we ran down desperate streets, and carved our names
In the flesh of the city.
The sun has stagnated somewhere beyond the rim of the horizon,
and the darkness is a mystery of curves and lines.
Still, we lay under the emptiness and drifted slowly outward,
and somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation
Scratched into the Earth like a message”.
http://twitter.com/freetalker1 Reem R. Al Dahham
I loved it and it broke my heart Truly felt it