{"id":15789,"date":"2023-07-20T20:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T00:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=15789"},"modified":"2023-07-16T14:33:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T18:33:34","slug":"topology-of-sirens-2021-jonathan-davies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/15789","title":{"rendered":"Topology of Sirens (2021, Jonathan Davies)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hook here is the investigation when Courtney Stephens (Terra Femme<\/a><\/em>) finds mysterious recordings in her aunt’s house. But the movie is less about the mystery than about soaking in a certain vibe (a recent cliche, but with all the sound vibrations here, it’s fitting). She’s in a California town without any “normal” residents around to smirk at the weirdness on display – instead everyone here is into avant-garde music, history, and sound recording technology. Between that and the measured pace and all the plants and gardens on display, it’s a calming movie which reminded me at times of Jacques Rivette, Alvin Lucier, and Peter Strickland (but in a good way).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The mystery begins with a hurdygurdy full of microcassettes found in a locked closet, and well before the Sirens arrive the movie lets us know it’s not too concerned with realism when Courtney sees a TV ad for an “always open” hurdygurdy store where she might learn more, trading her extremely rare but nonfunctioning hurdy for a centuries-old working instrument. She visits a local TV station because their jingle is the only recognizable sound on the tapes, and starts flashing the tapes’ handwritten symbols around to shopkeepers, unlocking new secrets.<\/p>\n

interesting patterns, given I watched Symphonie diagonale<\/a> the same day:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

I’m mad that I didn’t realize The Love Witch<\/a> was one of the Sirens. I could’ve seen either of Courtney’s musician friends Whitney Johnson or Sarah Davachi at Big Ears (but did not). No surprise that Davies is a sound and music guy on other films (including the recent Ham on Rye<\/em>, which shares significant crew members with this).<\/p>\n

doesn’t work as a still, but this is one of the finest shots of the year:<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

Jordan Cronk in Mubi<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As a musician himself, Davies is unsurprisingly fascinated by analog technologies and the way sound can tell stories and transform reality\u2014here, literally so, as Cas’ existential quest eventually summons a breach in which characters slip away, identities split, and storylines fold into a space where the familiar is rendered strange and intoxicating. Forgoing garden variety narrative markers in favor of a more meditative form of storytelling, Topology of Sirens<\/em> opens up avenues for thought and reflection that precious few films afford.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hook here is the investigation when Courtney Stephens (Terra Femme) finds mysterious recordings in her aunt’s house. But the movie is less about the mystery than about soaking in a certain vibe (a recent cliche, but with all the sound vibrations here, it’s fitting). She’s in a California town without any “normal” residents around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2643,2855,2895,3137,2258,1664],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-2020s","tag-audiotape","tag-courtney-stephens","tag-jonathan-davies","tag-live-music","tag-sound-recording"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15810,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions\/15810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}