Stars at Noon
Monday, October 10, 2022 2:14:20 PM | (Age Not Specified)
The film is based on the novel "Stars At Noon" by Denis Johnson. Written in 1986, Denis Johnson’s novel takes place in 1984 Nicaragua, during the Sandinista revolution. 'Stars At Noon' tells his story: as a young man, he went to Nicaragua to cover the civil war. He wanted to become a journalist, but all his articles were rejected. It seemed he went through hell there, without money and without hope. Back in the United States, he decided to write this novel, employing his notes and articles. He sets his fiction amid a civil war, the tone, raw, ironic, and tender. His ability to describe the permanent disillusion, ment of his characters astounds. But like with the song 'Stars at Noon', a collision of image and music, a moment of bliss.
The film is not a period piece. It effectively takes place in present-day Nicaragua. The film opens on a towering red tree, studded with lightbulbs. Next to it, another one, leveled and burnt. The President’s wife conceived these trees to symbolize Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. They each cost a fortune, money that would have been better spent on the people. Now, they’ve taken on a new meaning: the people’s anger. The film wants to describe a fortuitous encounter that becomes love, a sexual attraction that devours and blinds. And, as in the book, the violence rocking the country is seen from afar. Trish rushes into the street shouting: 'Sin Esperanza, sin esperanza'. Daniel before saying 'I love you', bemoans: 'I'm caught, I'm caught'. So, all is a love unreturned.
Written by Gregory Mann
