Samsāra or The Ever Turning Wheel of Life

December 31, 2012 2:09 PM

It's the end of the year again - a new end and a new beginning - but just one bit of Samsāra, a word that means "the ever turning wheel of life" in Sanskrit and that's also the name of the ...spiritual documentary maybe? (trailer) recently released by the makers of Baraka (previously) and Chronos. Visually excitable people will pop their eyes with pleasure at the 4K shooting, but there's (a lot, lot) more than meets the eyes. It's presently screening in the U.S. and other countries and I can't help recommending it to anybody. Happy 2013!
posted by elpapacito (13 comments total)

The Tea Party - Samsara

Sorry... I had to.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 3:06 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fascinating...
posted by samsara at 3:09 PM on December 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

It is imagery and music that lift the heart. Best seen on a big screen. I saw it at Cinetopia a movie experience to be sure. 4K digital projection and sound made to impress. Two thumbs up for Samsara.
posted by pdxpogo at 3:54 PM on December 31, 2012

Hey I just saw this movie last week. It's great.
posted by jessamyn at 4:06 PM on December 31, 2012

I'ma going to be Mr. Pedant here and note that samsāra actually refers to the "eternal cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth" (i.e., not just life) - or, even more specifically, it refers to "continuous flow" - the river that Heraclitus (apocryphally) referred to...

Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a. Buddha) wanted to be free of it ALL - not just life, not just death. He wanted freedom from the whole carousel of existence. Whether this is something other folks want is up for question.

That said, I am looking forward to seeing this film - so thanks for this, elpapacito.
posted by jammy at 4:42 PM on December 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

Absolutely fantastic. Saw it twice in 2 days at the Landmark Sunshine. I can't recommend it highly enough.
posted by karst at 5:59 PM on December 31, 2012

Features an awesome scene with Olivier de Sagazan, subject of an FPP by yours truly (and very much in the style of the videos linked in that post).
posted by idiopath at 6:10 PM on December 31, 2012

And yes, definitely worth seeing on a big screen projected from real film if you can find the chance.
posted by idiopath at 6:10 PM on December 31, 2012

Does any linguist know why संसार is rendered as Samsara in the Latin script instead of Sansara?
posted by Gyan at 9:11 PM on December 31, 2012

Visually excitable people will pop their eyes with pleasure at the 4K shooting ...

Samsara was not shot in 4k. It was all 65mm. Just a shame it hasn't been exhibited in 70, though some think 4k looks as good or better.
posted by Mothlight at 10:07 PM on December 31, 2012

Gyan, I'm not a linguist, but there are two different sounds than can be made from अं from the Hunterian transliteration it can transilterated by m(labial anusvara) or n(dental anusvara). I also just had my mom pronounce a bunch of different words that I've seen transliterated as san or sam it's defintely two different phonemes. I think that sanskrit could maybe transliterated as samskrit.
posted by roguewraith at 6:55 AM on January 1, 2013

End the cycle by refusing to play the game. Tell Karma to piss off. If enough of us did that, eventually Karma would have to figure out a new Way. End pain and suffering! Stop the Wheel and get off!
posted by Goofyy at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2013

One of the best of the year and pretty much has to be seen on the big screen, as do all of his films
posted by silsurf at 8:08 PM on January 2, 2013