December 2, 2016
MarkBernstein.org
 

Flesh and Bone

Oh, my.

This eight-hour film – it’s a film, not a series – builds to a single, inevitable, final word. This is the story of an artist who is called upon to create the one piece for which she has been made, by an unspeakable history, completely unsuitable. A few shots and a few scenes are held painfully long, but almost everything of importance is told elliptically and with concision.

It begins with a long, long shot in which a silent girl escapes Pittsburgh before dawn and takes that old familiar bus trip that ends with her NYC audition.

It all ends with a long, long shot in which she refuses to speak, and then – at last – says one word.

No.