The Wake

Sometimes silence is the most beautiful sound of all. The film Cosmic Dissonance is proof. J. Roberts Larsen’s movie is a dialogue-free exploration of the landscape of Armageddon and how easily it can be found–even right herein the Twin Cities, where the film was shot.

Using Minnesota’s winter as the backdrop, one lone woman (Jennifer Bahe) backpacks through desolate areas, including a junkyard full of debris and rusty bicycles, a frozen prairie, and graffiti-covered train tracks. Along the journey, our heroine takes time to explore, climb trees, try on makeup in an abandoned apartment, roller skate through an industrial parking lot and play at a playground where she encounters an unusual character and receives a melon in exchange for a cigarette.

Does it sound bizarre? It is on the surface, but close viewing will reveal that there really aren’t any unnecessary elements. Questions will be provoked. Theories may run rampant. But this seems to be the ultimate goal of Cosmic Dissonance.

The film is composed of interesting shots, alone making it worth watching at least once; and cinematography skillfully enhances the film’s sentiment. Often the camera will stay in one place while the main character moves farther and farther away, eventually becoming a small particle in the expansive landscape. Another noteworthy camera shot takes place in the playground scene, when the wandering woman finds herself at a slide in the defunct play area. The camera focuses on her, staying in place as she climbs up the slide, then down, then runs around to the other side, only to repeat the process.

Although Cosmic Dissonance exhibits one take on the end of the world, there is a strangely calm feeling throughout. There is no panic. No chaos. The only negative theme running throughout is loneliness, literally seen via quotes about the state of being alone that are interjected between scenes. Each saying, such as Randall Jarrell’s, “I see you now that you aren’t here. Before you were and I saw nothing,” both forecast and explain what is happening, leaving the viewer to assemble each piece like a puzzle-.

“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone,” states another quote, reinforcing their placements as threads that weave together the film’s theme with its visuals.

Cosmic Dissonance might take a few viewings to actually get a grasp on what is being said and why each element was used. But overall, it’s interesting to see a human wandering alone through a world, a world that is usually so full of sound that it’s static. The camerawork, however, isn’t, and some may find the shakiness unsettling. So pop a few Dramamine and be prepared to think and wonder what it would be like to wander in a post-Apocalyptic world by yourself.