Williamstowne

Billing itself as "the first feature length 'live action' film to be written to music" (and what, might I ask, was Alan Parker's vastly superior Pink Floyd's The Wall?), Richard Horian's Williamstowne, a nearly wordless 19th century ghost story set to a handful of compositions by Vaughan Williams, aims to be a "ballet without dance." To that end, we watch ghost Sarah (Deni Delory), having risen from the grave, glide around the titular seaside village, drawn to her (still grieving) husband, parents and friends--the dead woman wishing to rejoin the living; the people she left behind missing her dearly. Ballet with dance would have been a far better medium of expression here, the dull literal quality of the "story" virtually begging for some kind of abstract punch. The press materials assure us--with extraordinary chutzpah--that Williamstowne "allows the audience a release they have never known from film." Really? As far as I can tell, this emotive musical story is told several times each and every day; it's called MTV and thank goodness the tales of lost love only take three, not 92, minutes. (R. Pitman)