Cinema. Rendering #4.

The headline of the article is Almost Like Being in Vegas ‘Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away’ in 3-D which was published on  http://movies.nytimes.com  by A. O. Scott on December 20, 2012. The article deals with an unusual film dedicated to the famous circus.

Firstly, the author notes that for him this film will always be associated with the movie “Knocked Up,” in which the characters played by Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd take in a performance of “Mystère” under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. If such a trip is not to your taste, or if a trip to Las Vegas is not on your calendar, you might opt for the relatively inexpensive, mildly mind-blowing “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away,” a new 3-D movie directed by Andrew Adamson.

Secondly, A. O. Scott  points out that Mr. Adamson, whose previous credits include the first two “Shrek” and the first two “Chronicles of Narnia” movies, threads together a greatest-hits anthology of sequences from seven Cirque du Soleil productions. A big-eyed young woman (Erica Linz) catches the eye of an aerialist (Igor Zaripov) and, after he falls into a sand pit, pursues him through a series of enchanted, sometimes sinister landscapes.

Finally, the author makes a conclusion that while the bodies of the performers do amazing things, the hectic editing and frequent use of slow motion distract from their physical artistry rather than enhance it. The 3-D, on the other hand, gives some sense of the scale of a Cirque du Soleil performance, and even if the film is no substitute for the real thing, it is at least an effective advertisement.

To crown it all, I'd like to underline that this film is really amazing, though it's not easy to fully understand it. Nevertheless, it's definitely worth watching.