The DISTILLATIONS page holds the movie reviews, interviews,
and podcasts for THE WINEMAKER film series
which may be updated weekly, but only #TheWinemakerknows
Here's what the critics are saying about
THE WINEMAKER film series that
#TheWinemakerknows about:
(Live links to writers in BLUE)
and podcasts for THE WINEMAKER film series
which may be updated weekly, but only #TheWinemakerknows
Here's what the critics are saying about
THE WINEMAKER film series that
#TheWinemakerknows about:
(Live links to writers in BLUE)
January 20, 2017 Link to a Question and Answer with HQ of K (Kristina's movie blog) by (@HQofK)
January 21, 2017 The Winemaker: First taste of a feature in the making by (@backtothecinema)
February 5, 2017 Interview and Q&A with B-MOVIE BROS (@BmovieBros)
February 12, 2017 Interview with iographer (Guest Blog) USER SPOTLIGHT - MEET INDIE FILMMAKER NARSIESSE
March 7, 2017 Interview with The Record/The Kitchener POST/The Waterloo Chronicle
Filmmaker inspired by Native heritage and cultural touchstones to create The Winemaker: Building a new mythos
A great mood piece that threads disparate elements from Japanese and First Nation cultures to Shakespeare's Macbeth. This short lays down a confident lo-fi aesthetic with some interesting iconography and cryptic voice over...Just who is THE WINEMAKER? And what does he know?
Alon Young (@TearsInRain1)
"What are little boys made of...what are little boys made of" is the Freudian children's taunt that introduces you into the psychotropic, guilt-ridden, omnipresent haunt in director Narsiesse's visually daring film THE WINEMAKER. Unfortunately, I cannot answer the above mentioned question, but what I do know is what Narsiesse, the film's director, is made of: a bold artist that has given independent film making its next talked about think-piece.
This is an unforgettable movie: strange, abstract, art-driven and lurking, THE WINEMAKER, is the kind of film that is all the right kinds of high art meets low budget. Upon first view, you are forced to be initiated into its dimension of dangerous introspection and self-discovery, leaving us in a different emotional place, than where we started, thus being justifiably transported.
This project that Narsiesse produced, directed, and starred in delivers on it's director's promises, satisfies our built-up anticipations, and stirs vigorously our collective imagination of what this film will become the deeper we look. Narsiesse accomplishes on the very thing he strives for: giving a statement of a film that provokes investigation, giving just enough to lure us in, but not too much to where any predictability could be scabbed off the emotional narrative wounds of the main character Vic.
THE WINEMAKER is a conceptual piece of work that continues to unpeel its layers leaving a Hansel and Gretel trail of cryptic enticements as represented by the film's transfixing children. Starting with a short film, it materializes into a four part mini web series that will eventually culminate into a feature film.
Narsiesse, aim isn't going for just a film - anyone can do that - he is going for the experience and he wants to take us with him. It's one thing for a first-time filmmaker to just make a film that is passionate to themselves and transpose it to others. Narsiesse, however, is giving us a collective symbolism in THE WINEMAKER that's deep and truly personal.
Through its contextual devices and spiritual impressionism, THE WINEMAKER, leaves little room for doubt of its intentions to be provocative, by not only being steeped in its surrealism, but to carve out a pessimistic mystery into a dark cavern behind the film's titular character. Yes, Something Wicked This Way May Come but something intriguing and rewarding has already shown up, and you have no one but Narsiesse to thank for it.
Audy Christiano (@cinesamurairiff) CinemaSamurai.net
I have noticed quite a number of your posts so I am excited to check out the feature -- I've watched the first short and think it is remarkable and very artistic. I like that you are helping other artists in showcasing and promoting their work. Looking forward to seeing more of the project.
Vince Leo (@Qwipster, @Qwipsterpod) www.qwipster.net
I approached this short with great curiosity, and I must say that I very much appreciated the originality of the plot and the way in which it was represented. The story is not very clear at first, but being the first part of a larger project, this helps to create the right amount of tension and mystery around the work. The music is hypnotic and disturbing as in the best horror films.
As the author himself says in the notes the film is rich in literary and film references, I have personally noticed references to Kubrick, Malick, and a visionary atmosphere that closely resembles Inland Empire by David Lynch. In short, a promising debut for an author who surely has many surprises in store for us in the future.
Tonino Mannella (@mtonino)
As a man walks the lonely halls of a winery, they soon become less lonely as he catches glimpses of two children. They seem perfectly at home, but it also seems as though they shouldn't be in any of the places where they appear....and perhaps they aren't in those places, not really.
The visuals are fascinating -- I watched it twice to make sure I hadn't missed any fleeting image. Unsurprisingly given its five-minute length, it has something of an unfinished feel to it, a strong sense that there's a great deal more that couldn't be shown yet for various reasons, but what is shown is tantalizing. It reminds me of a song that stops in the middle of a phrase -- it leaves the audience unsettled and wishing for an ending.
For now, THE WINEMAKER is as much a teaser as a short film, with a feature-length version yet to come. The characters are only hinted at, some of them barely even visible, but several of them still give a feeling of great tension and uncertainty. Only the children seem strangely calm. But everyone is likely to find something different in this movie, as with a painting, and I for one will be very interested to watch the progression of this film.
Laura MacLeod, Movie Critic Next Door website (@MovieCriticND)
With children's voices chanting the refrain of a nursery rhyme, a disembodied voice punctures the ear with accusatory phrases over images unfolding like memories in the mind. With each passing scene a mystery is slowly painted with much left unsaid. A famous line from Bradbury is invoked as symbols of Mythos instill that, indeed, 'Something wicked This Way Comes'. An exciting preview of a new Indie project by filmmaker Narsiesse. Who are these characters and what wickedness do they speak of? #TheWinemakerknows and soon so shall you.
Eugene Cobb @cinemaofdreams
A first short experimental film given like a Dadaist improvisation by @WinemakerFilm
@Yep_land
(Yep.Land website)
The Winemaker is a dream-like experimental short film that elegantly cycles through and juxtaposes varied iconography, while expressing an abstract narrative. The blending of the surreal with its subjective shooting style achieve a vivid poeticism in its examination of the relationship between a psychological interior and the external cultural influences.
Martin Kessler (@MovieKessler: Podcaster: Flixwise.com)
The Winemaker is not just a short but a piece of a larger puzzle, a four part mini-web-series that when assembled, comprises a feature film. Creator Narsiesse has carved out new territory in the digital space with this bold blue print for self-distribution - an avenue that looks increasingly like a new, viable route to Indie glory. More than that, The Winemaker story and direction do not follow traditional structure, but strive to reflect the fragmentation of memory and experience - an aim that film as a medium is especially equipped to put in perspective for viewers. One begins to think while watching that the action is not happening outwardly to Vic, the main character, but inside his deepest psyche, where two children need his help but an old man waits with grim purpose. Bonus points awarded to Narsiesse for portraying the main character with panache and also to the Art department, who designed original Artwork as part of the overall experience.
Kathyrn D. Moeller (@KMoells) Filmmaker/content creator at HollywoodRedux.com)
Do you remember the part in the Stanley Kubrick film THE SHINING when little Danny sees the vision of the murdered twins in the creepy hallway of the Overlook Hotel? Well I certainly do and that simple image frightened me for a very long time. Recently I was asked to review a new short film called THE WINEMAKER by Narsiesse. Narsiesse has some very ambitious plans for this short film with the hopes of it becoming a full length feature film.
Full of color, some great special effects, and a lot of symbolism including those of the Native Americans and Japanese cultures, with the words of Shakespeare tying them together. THE WINEMAKER will really effect your brain from start to end and reading the synopsis does nothing to prepare you for what you are going to witness over the five minutes of the film.
The scene that really struck me was the Kubrick like shot of the two children at the end of a very dark passageway, and just like in The Shining, this single image is going to stay with me for a long time. THE WINEMAKER is something that I am looking forward to seeing more of!
Robert Jenner (Fan Film Boyz Podcast) www.fanfilmboyz.com (@fanfilmboyzpod)
THE WINEMAKER is an enigmatic and evocative short film from the mind of Narsiesse. Multilayered children's voices share Japanese proverbs; a woman's voice taunts us with prose from Macbeth. The experience is disorienting, the visuals full of atmosphere and tension. THE WINEMAKER feels like deeply personal film, full of symbolic and referential imagery. Clearly Narsiesse is a devout cinephile, with nods to many different filmmakers and cinematic forms. Zoetropic images of a buffalo give way to vibrant iPhone footage. The meld is successful, imbuing the work with a restless energy as it ducks and weaves through Vic's thoughts and visions. THE WINEMAKER short is the first stage of a bigger project - next web series, then feature film. I for one am looking forward to seeing more of THE WINEMAKER, and finding out what exactly it is he knows.
Harry Lindley (@hjnlindley) harrylindleyfilm.com
Hope people pay attention to this fragmented undertow from Narsiesse.
"What are little boys made of?"
The good thing about THE WINEMAKER is it lets us connect the dots, like good poetry.
And as we do, there's something there.
(@tim_everitt), TIM EVERITT PRODUCTIONS
THE WINEMAKER knows. What does he know? The viewer is unsure, but perhaps by closer examination of Narsiesse's new short film THE WINEMAKER, one can find out. Or can they?
THE WINEMAKER, the first in what will become a four part web series (and as the director Narsiesse says, later a feature film), is a purposefully confusing work of experimental filmmaking. Cutting between settings, Native American artwork, and children in suburban locals, we have to wonder what statement the director is trying to make. No character is explicit to the film, other than this titular "Winemaker", of whom we only get some quick glances (I assume). We are, however, presented with a bevy of voices asking "what are little boys made of', "didn't you know what I was about?", "where are you my loves", and of course stating the titular "the winemaker knows".
How do these all add together, though? Are we meant to leave this experience with some solid idea? Will the future installments provide clarity to this puzzle of a short film? I can't hep but feel that answers aren't meant to be given in this case, and that the completed series will simply leave us with more questions. In true experimental form, I feel that we should remain somewhat in the dark as to Narsiesse's intentions, left only with an impression of reality rather than the full picture. Only our imagination will be able to fill in the blanks. I suppose though, only time will tell I for one am interested to see where this series goes.
(@CinemaVsDave), CINEMA VERSUS BLOG
First review in Spanish:
THE WINEMAKER es:
Una invitación al juego, a la imaginación, al mundo simbólico de la infancia y de la tierra con ecos del mundo obsesivo de David Lynch y el Resplandor (The Shining) de Kubrick.
La realidad resplandece para los jugadores que aceptan el desafío de llamar a su destino porque el destino ya les esperaba.
El mal es una mirada fermentada que desdibuja todo símbolo de realidad, se divierte ebrio con canciones de niños donde la caída es la aceptación de un nuevo orden, una nueva vision.
Obsesiones, imaginaciones, anhelos y miedos son destilados en símbolos de creación, reproducción, sabiduría o fertilidad...pero la moral de la tierra avanza caótica (como la carrera de un búfalo) como la mirada de un niño
Y todo símbolo o percepción es una invitación al juego, a las correspondencias y divergencias de la realidad, de la naturaleza...y el mal o el amor sólo son la decisión de cruzar el umbral y aceptar la creación de tu realidad: el juego que te esperaba porque tú decidiste que te esperaba: aunque estés maldito (o aunque ese juego está maldito).
La naturaleza tiembla ebria.
Translation:
THE WINEMAKER is:
An invitation to the game, to the imagination, to the symbolic world of childhood and of the Earth with echoes of the obsessive world of David Lynch and the glow of Kubrick's The Shining.
Reality shines for players who accept the challenge of chasing their fate because their fate was already waiting for them.
Evil's fermented look shines its glance and blurs any symbol of reality, amuses itself being drunk with children's nursery rhymes, where the fall is the acceptance of a new order: a new vision.
Obsessions. Imaginations. Desires and fears are distilled spirits and symbols of creation, breeding, wisdom or fertility...but the Earth morality advances chaotic (like the running buffalo) like the gaze of a child.
And any symbol or perception is an invitation to play the game, correspondences and differences of the reality of Nature...and evil or love are just the decision to cross the threshold and accept the creation of your own reality: the game that awaited you, because at the moment that you decided to cross, it was waiting for you, because the game be damned.
Fabio Scuratti (@TATJANASL), TATJANA- PRODUCTORA AUDIOVISUAL website
