By Tadhg O'sullivan
There is perhaps nothing more universal than looking at the moon. As Long as humans have walked the earth, our closest heavenly companion has captivated the nightly imagination. A ghostly presence that carries its own monthly death and resurrection, the moon is a melancholy figure - our planet's barren twin. And yet it has a deeply joyous aspect - the full glow of its light is awonder, all the more because of its fleeting nature.
As a canvas for human creativity the moon is unsurpassed - it has been sung to, implored, made woman and man; imagined as the beginning of heaven, the source of love, death, dreams and birth; ithas been utopia to our dystopic planet; it has been - rightly and wrongly - held responsible for everything from insanity to fertility, from the tides to the mysterious journey of eels across the oceans; an empty and lifeless rocky globe, we have somehow made it everything to us.
To The Moon does not seek (nor could it ever achieve) a total cultural history of its subject. Rather it weaves its stories and fragments into a thread that serves as a guide across unexpected andmagical terrain. Following the cyclical structure of one complete lunar phase, the film moves through its themes, combining an associative freedom with a controlled narrative style.
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