Watching waves and thinking about life with Henwar Rodakiewicz

Is it worth your time?

If you are the kind of person who can sit by a window for twenty minutes just watching rain, you will probably find this hypnotic. If you need a plot or even a single line of dialogue to stay awake, you should definitely skip it.

It is definitely for the crowd that values vibe over everything else. You’ll probably hate it if you’re looking for a traditional story.

The movie is called Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements, which sounds like it should have a guy in it. But mostly, it’s just Henwar Rodakiewicz pointing a camera at stuff he thinks is neat.

There are these title cards at the start. They say that what a person likes reveals who they are.

So, I guess this guy really likes the sea. And rocks. And occasionally, machines that turn in circles.

The first movement is almost entirely water and rocks. It’s silent, obviously, so you just hear your own thoughts or maybe the hum of your laptop.

I kept waiting for something to happen, but then I realized the happening is just the way the light hits the waves. It reminded me a bit of the atmosphere in Ocean Swells, though this feels more personal.

There is a specific shot of the tide coming in where the foam looks like lace. It’s one of those things you don't notice in real life because you're usually worried about getting your shoes wet.

Then these machines show up. It’s weird.

They are turning and spinning, and the light makes these dappled patterns on the metal. It’s a strange jump from the ocean to a factory, but it kind of works if you don't think about it too hard.

It has that rhythmic feel you see in stuff like São Paulo, Sinfonia da Metrópole. But instead of a city, it’s just one person's internal world.

The second movement has a tree. A leafy branch just hangs there for a while.

Then we get the sky and clouds. It’s the kind of stuff you see when you’re lying on your back in the grass, just drifting off.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements (1931) through its definitive frames.

I found myself getting a bit bored during the clouds, honestly. They move so slow.

But then the third movement goes back to the shore. There are these long takes looking out past the beach to these rock outcroppings on the horizon.

It feels very lonely. Not a bad lonely, just a quiet lonely.

The way the small breakers interrupt the patterns of light on the water is actually pretty cool to watch. You can see how much work went into the framing.

If you want a movie with actual actors and drama, maybe try Bad Sister instead. This is not that.

The title cards feel a little bit pretentious, maybe? Like the movie is trying to convince you it’s deeper than it actually is.

But the visuals are hard to argue with. They have this crispness that you don't always see in films from the early 30s.

One shot of the water lingered so long I thought the video had frozen. But then a tiny ripple moved, and I realized it was just a very long take.

I don't feel like I know the "Young Man" from the title any better after watching this. I just know he probably spent a lot of time at the beach alone.

It’s a short film, but it feels like it takes up a lot of space in your head. It's the kind of thing you watch when you're tired of people talking.

I liked the machines the most, strangely. There was something honest about the way they just kept turning while the water kept crashing.

Don't expect a big ending. It just kind of stops, like a thought that you forgot to finish. 🌊

Random notes from my notebook:

• The light on the water looks like molten silver in a few shots.
• I think I saw a bird for a split second, but I might have blinked and missed it.
• The transition from trees to sky is very smooth, almost like a dream.
• Those machines are definitely from a different world than the beach.
• I wonder if the director got his feet wet making this.