DESPITE THE GODS
ON VOD AND DVD MAY 19TH
We watch car races for the wrecks. It’s human nature. We are attracted to disaster, to carnage.
And disaster is the primary reason to seek out the documentary Despite the Gods, a film that chronicles director Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s attempt to create a Bollywood-Hollywood film in India. Surrounded by an all Indian cast and crew, Lynch struggles for months to make a film called Hisss about a snake that becomes a woman and then becomes a snake again. As much as that doesn’t sound like a good idea on paper, the realization of the idea is even worse as Lynch fights the universe to create something out of the chaos.
The problem with the film is that the chaos doesn’t seem that chaotic. There are some unplanned rain storms (as opposed to those you can schedule) and locations must be changed. Communication issues that you’d expect filming in another country. Ultimately, Lynch simply comes across as an emotional wreck that wasn’t in the right headspace to take on this sort of project.
This is not Lost in La Mancha, the spectacular doc about Terry Gilliam’s perfectly failed attempt to make Man of La Mancha. That project was doomed with Murphy’s Law- every possible component of the film going wrong. Weather destroying sets, money falling through and a lead actor with a broken back who needs to spend hours on horseback. The movie crumbles and it is all caught on tape. A colossal car wreck!
Despite the Gods is not the catastrophe that it should be. It is interesting to watch the difference in culture and Lynch makes a suitable subject. Having directed her first film at the age of 19 and being the daughter of David Lynch, she is a unique creature that does make the film’s 85 minute runtime breeze by swift.
Not much happens and Despite the Gods begins to meander about half the way through. Nothing much is revealed and Lynch does not undergo any arch or change that would have made this much more fulfilling. I would like to seek out the finished product. Hisss would probably entertain more than this, but probably not in the way it was intended.