My first meeting with Richard Stanley was neither Hardware or Dust Devil, it was The Secret Glory. I’m a natural born skeptic, but I’m attracted to magic, or what people claim is magic. Some kind of supernatural science, but instead with computers and machines you connect to that world beyond with words, rituals or just a special state of mind. Let’s call it imagination, which for me always have the ultimate form of healing. But enough about my personal view on esoterica. The Secret Glory was the story about Otto Rahn, who was sent out by the nazis to investigate if there was any truth in the Holy Graal and it’s whereabouts. It’s more a personal journey for Stanley himself, touching very little of the actual ideas - the cool stuff used in movies - and goes for the jugular, the human behind it all. It’s a tragic, bittersweet story made on a very small budget, after the TV-channel who commissioned the documentary pulled out.
The Otherworld is a perfect follow up to The Secret Glory, because without The Secret Glory there would never have been a The Otherworld. Director Stanley now lives in Montségur, in the middle of the hotspot of spiritual and mysteries in France, and have explored the beliefs and people around the area. Like a Greek choir, repeating himself, guiding us and Stanely, the hermit and artist (you might say) Uranie. A living skeleton, with something that looks like war paint over his eyes and carefully arranged artworks, toys and metallic objects all over the area he owns. He have a clock there also, two hours wrong - because in this area the time flows differently. Around him we meet the Mayor of Rennes-le-Château and the Mayor of Bugarach, both men who quietly accepted - not without hesitation - the for every year wilder and wilder legends of their home turfs. Bugarach, for example, is famous for being the village (and mountain nearby) in France where 20000 believers gathered at the millennium to greet aliens, enter a new era or just smoke weed. We also meet the expat who photographs Orbs in his free time and several guides and other people of knowledge.
But the documentary starts and closes with a story Stanley himself tells, which is quite eerie. True? I don’t know, but does that really matter?
The Otherworld is probably the closest we get to a Richard Stanley doing a Werner Herzog documentary, which is not a bad thing at all. It’s an amazing and mesmerizing journey into stuff I had some knowledge about, but still feels like science fiction. To witness Uranie point out sacred geometry with dirty old maps and ring after ring drawn upon them and the expat show all his photos, to the stunning experience - which might be more important for Stanley than for us - the director experienced, all to the stunning photo by Karim Hussein...this is a beautiful, haunting masterpiece.
A feeling came over me while watching it, a feeling of envy. Because I would love to be able to abandon myself and sometimes my life today and just search for something. Search for something that might change my mind. Spiritual or any other way. But I know I can’t, it’s not me. I’m Fred, I like movies, I can’t believe stuff without experiencing it myself. To believe in a ghost I need to see it myself. To believe in UFO’s landing on earth, I need to be there as a witness.
Most of the time that’s a good thing, a healthy view on life and society. But sometimes I dream and imagine myself in another world, like all other semi-depressed humans who just want to find some peace. Maybe one day. When the Devil’s old he start reading the bible, as we say in Sweden.
The Otherworld is out from Njutafilms, and if you live in Sweden you can purchase the DVD on Discshop for example.
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