Until the Light Takes Us (2008)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Directors:

Aaron Aites
Audrey Ewell

Release Date:

2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Until the Light Takes Us is a feature length documentary chronicling the history, ideology and aesthetic of Norwegian black metal...

Plot Keywords:

Black Metal | Harmony Korine | Terrorism | Modern Art | Globalization

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Varg Vikernes	...	Himself
Fenriz	...	Himself
Harmony Korine	...	Unexplained
Hellhammer	...	Himself

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company:

Artists Public Domain

Pretty good!

So, I've been waiting almost two years for this film to come out, and it finally did. I actually just saw it today (November 5, 2008) at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood for the AFI Film Festival.

Until The Light Takes Us fulfilled many of my expectations. For one thing, it features lots of insight from Varg Vikernes. I was afraid that he would only be in a small fraction of the movie.

The film is pretty much about the beginnings of Norwegian Black Metal, and about all of the lies and misconceptions surrounding it. It was not made be black metal fans, so it's a very unbiased view at the events that took place in the late 80's and early 80's.

Though being a black metal fan myself, I believe this to be a very accurate and fascinating documentary. It is not a narrative, contrary to what I first expected, but basically interviews with various black metal artists such as Fenriz, Count Grishnackh, Abbath, Demonaz, Hellhammer, and many others (of whom I cannot remember the names of at this moment). This film has an amazing amount of credibility and really clears up what Norwegian Black Metal is all about.

This film had very few things that I disliked. Though several parts of this movie were shot with a hand-held camera; normally this doesn't bother me, but the whole time I was thinking "Why didn't these guys use a steady cam!?" The shaky camera movement almost made me feel sick. Fortunately most of the film isn't like this. Second of all, there is a sequence about this modern artist who made art surrounding the genre of black metal. I felt like this was sort of to kill time, and I felt like the man was just being pretentious. This, to me, had little to do with the subject of the film. The movie is also a bit scattered. The beginning starts out with Fenriz, and I didn't really know where the film was headed. The movie didn't become more chronological until later on, and even then there really aren't any signposts throughout the film so unless you are familiar with the subject you might get a bit lost.

I felt that the music for this movie was very appropriate. It did contain black metal, but not enough to turn away your average moviegoer. The soundtrack is a mix of black metal and ambient music, making the movie very easy to watch while still putting you within the dark atmosphere. I congratulate the makers of this film for not making it one giant music video! Though overall, I'm pretty impressed. I was highly anticipating this movie and it was very through provoking and enjoyable. I took a friend with me to see it, who knew nothing about black metal, and she enjoyed it. It's a great film for black metal fans and even those who aren't. I do hope that this movie wins some kind of award.