In the course of my life I've probably seen Nanook of the North five or six times. The first time was because I'd heard about how important this film was and, like Un Chien Andalou and Birth of a Nation, there are a handful of films that are required viewing if you're serious about film as an art. Those three films have also popped up every time I've taken a film course, and I know that two of my viewings of Nanook were due to taking a class on documentaries twice. Nanook is a film where it's impossible to overstate its importance, since it invented the feature-length documentary genre (I'm sure there were some before this, but Nanook was a sensation). It's also intriguing because, even though it's a documentary, it's jam-packed with bullshit.
I really like this film, but as I've gotten older I've come to see this more as a regular film instead of as a living document of the Eskimo lifestyle. It's got slapstick gags in it (like Nanook's family coming out of a small canoe one after another, his fight with the walrus) and goofy shit where Nanook is clearly playing to the camera (chewing on a record when he already knew damn well what a record was). There are impossible interior shots of an igloo where you can even see where half of it was removed to get light in, based on some sharp shadows. But really, I'm not one of those nitpickers who's going to dislike a documentary because it isn't entirely true. I watch films for entertainment, and on that point, Nanook is delightful.
Nanook himself is a very charismatic figure, and you're rooting for him throughout the film, even as he's sliding a knife through some walrus blubber. He's got a great smile, and his children ranks as some of the most adorable you'll see, especially in a scene where Nanook is busting his ass trying to make an igloo while his kids slide down a hill. While some of his adventures aren't "real" in a documentary sense, nearly all of them are entertaining. For the perverts out there, this film also operates under the "exotic breasts are allowed" rule, which is surprising given the 1922 release date. Director Robert Flaherty takes advantage of the landscape and gets some amazing shots, and you really feel the frozen atmosphere in this movie.
Even after several viewings, I still like this movie quite a bit, and it still breaks my heart knowing that Nanook died shortly after filming wrapped. He comes across as this larger than life figure who can tame the elements and survive even under the worst conditions, so his death really does knock you down after the high of this movie. I've heard several stories about the making of this film, including that Flaherty was apparently screwing one of Nanook's daughters and had a kid with her. I can't verify this, but apparently his wife knew about it and was OK with it. That's not relevant to what I thought of this movie, but hey, it's pretty interesting.
Ranking documentaries is a bit tough for me, since it's kind of light pitting A Brief History of Time against The Sound and the Fury. If I strip away the "reality" aspect of this and rank it as an entertaining piece of filmmaking, I think I'd put it just below Oliver Twist and right above Salo. That seems like an impossibly low ranking for such an important film, but as I've stated, importance doesn't factor into my personal enjoyment of a movie, and while I do find Nanook to be a charming film, I just don't see it as more of an enjoyable experience than most of the other Criterion films I've seen so far. Is Blood For Dracula "better" than Nanook? No, clearly not, but given the choice, I'd watch Dracula over Nanook again in a heartbeat.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Robocop (1987)
3. Seven Samurai (1954)
4. The Seventh Seal (1957)
5. M (1931)
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
7. Grand Illusion (1937)
8. High and Low (1963)
9. Shock Corridor (1963)
10. Hard Boiled (1992)
11. Sid and Nancy (1986)
12. The 400 Blows (1959)
13. Walkabout (1971)
14. The Killer (1989)
15. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
16. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
17. Dead Ringers (1988)
18. Great Expectations (1946)
19. The Naked Kiss (1964)
20. A Night to Remember (1958)
21. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
22. The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956)
23. The Long Good Friday (1980)
24. Blood For Dracula (1974)
25. Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
26. Amarcord (1973)
27. Oliver Twist (1948)
28. Nanook of the North (1922)
29. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
30. Summertime (1955)
31. Alphaville (1965)
Next time: I spent three delightful hours watching Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev.
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