This
could be a case of Schumpeterian destruction on a cosmic scale. What would have
taken a Tibetan Buddhist monastery fifteen thousand years to complete, can now
be handled in one hundred days using the latest in super computing technology—circa
1957. Forget the Chinese invasion of 1950 and the occupation that continues to
this day, because we are probably dealing with an alternate history throughout Dominique
Filhol’s The Nine Billion Names of God, a short film adaptation of the
Arthur C. Clarke short story, which screens tonight during the 2019 Burbank International Film Festival.
For
the last three centuries, the Monks of Sera Mey have labored to compile all the
possible names of God, by calculating every possible permutation of the letters
in the alphabet. However, Lama Dilgo hopes to jump-start their mission by
hiring the services of an IBM-like mainframe computer and two technicians to
service it. Since the monastery has good credit (again, the Chinese invasion never
seemed to happen in this world), Dr. Warner is happy to oblige. However, those
two technicians do not like the answers when they start to ask: “then what?”
Nine
Billion Names features
some remarkably accomplished names in its credits, starting with Clarke, but
also including cellist Gautier Capuçon performing Mark Yaeger’s original score.
It sounds classy and looks absolutely amazing thanks to grandness of Athys de Galzain’s
cinematography, which takes full advantage of the Tibetan vistas. (Actually,
they are the Alps doubling for the Himalayas). This is a first-class period
production that combines elements of Mad Men in the first half and Kundun
in the second.
Yves
Yan is terrific radiating spiritual insight and maturity as Lama Dilgo. Paul Bandey
also helps keep the first act snappy as the deal-making Wagner. Still, ideas
matter more than plot or characters in this film. In fact, the former becomes
rather ambiguous. Filhol’s use of mandala quite strikingly represents the film’s
spiritual themes. Yet, Names rather awkwardly casts the Tibetan monks in
the light of a death cult, at least to some extent.
Admittedly,
there are indeed some problematic implications that may be inferred from the
film, but it is still unusually meditative and ambitious, especially by the
standards of genre shorts. On a technical level, it is an impressively crafted
and carefully polished work of cinema. In a weird way, it feels compatible with
Clarke’s cinematic masterpiece, 2001, because both films take on cosmic
dimensions as they unfold. Definitely worth checking out, The Nine Billion
Names of God screens tonight (9/7) as part of the short film block Sci-Fi,
Fantasy, Horror 6, at this year’s Burbank International Film Festival.
