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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3141, Saturday, April 19, 2008, Editor: Mark
Editor's note: I rented the DVD of a fun film yesterday: Zen
Noir. I recommend it.
Zen Noir
Though it begins like a private-eye flick, `Zen Noir' transforms
into an inner investigation.
By Kevin Thomas, Special to The Times
More than 10 years ago, writer-director Marc Rosenbush was
meditating at a Buddhist temple when he looked at the half-asleep
people all around him and wondered, "What would happen if
one of us just keeled over, dead?"
One possible answer lies in the theater director's first feature
film, "Zen Noir," a provocative, witty - and admittedly
esoteric - experimental comedy that is serious, amusing and
satisfying, in Rosenbush's words: "a Zen riddle designed
more to be experienced than understood."
The film begins deceptively like yet another private-eye spoof,
with a nameless detective (Duane Sharp), unshaven but hatted,
peering into a mirror and mouthing trite gumshoe voice-over
dialogue: "The morning fog clung to the city like
desperation on an aging drag queen," mercifully followed by
"Why do I talk like that?"
Once the detective steps into a Buddhist temple to investigate
the death of a monk who has keeled over during meditation, he
enters another universe, where he is confronted by the serenely
implacable Master (Kim Chan). Gradually, the detective discovers
that the real mystery he must unravel is himself.
While spiked with much humor, the detective's odyssey into
himself becomes a convincingly genuine transformation, demanding
much of the highly skilled and resourceful Sharp, for whom Chan
provides a formidable foil.
The process requires the detective to come to grips with the loss
of his beloved pregnant wife (Jennifer Siebel) and his growing
affection for the enigmatic monk Jane (Debra Miller), whose
demonstration of the definition of a lay priest suggests that Zen
Buddhism and sex are hardly mutually exclusive.
"Zen Noir" is essentially, even literally, a chamber
drama that unfolds entirely inside the temple, a large space with
tatami mats, shoji screens and sections of blood-red walls. It
may be theatrical yet is no mere filmed play.
Rosenbush collaborates with inspired cinematographer Christopher
Gosch to create a high-styled film that is visually rich and
stunning. Its bold imagery is splendidly complemented by Steven
Chesne's score, jazzy at the start but increasingly exotic. No
small part of the pleasure in watching "Zen Noir" is
that it could scarcely look richer or more elegant yet probably
was made on a minuscule budget.
MPAA rating: Not rated. Some sex, complex adult themes. A Magic
Lamp release. Writer-producer-director Marc Rosenbush. Producers
Frank Crim, Erika Gardner. Cinematographer Christopher Gosch.
Editor Camden Toy. Running time: 1 hour, 11 minutes.
http://www.zenmovie.com/trailer.html