Le Quattro Volte

Beautifully composed portrait of life in a remote corner of rural Italy, with some excellent dog and goat performances.

Located in a remote corner of southern Italy barely touched by modernity, Le Quattro Volte begins and ends with charcoal. In between it takes us from an elderly goatherd to a newborn goat to a tree, pursuing in leisurely fashion a Pythagorean idea; that within our one life we all have four lives, and so must meet each other four times.

Already I feel that I’m not really selling this to you. Pythagoras? Charcoal? Leisurely? Well, this is a Cannes award-winner and it does feature plenty of majestically composed shots where not much happens. Watching it requires a change of gear but that is part of the pleasure it offers, along with a vivid, earthy sense of place and a surprising amount of humour. In particular there’s a Tati-like sequence involving a truck, a mischievous dog and some runaway goats which seems completely unorchestrated but must have involved detailed planning.

The main feature begins at 6.30, and at 6pm we have Coming Attractions (dir: Peter Tscherkassky), a remarkable 25-minute film which plunders adverts, early cinema and the avant-garde.