The thrill of watching John Berger on screen is watching him listen. In "The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger," a new documentary that’s
less about the writer than an extension of his ideas, the titular essayist, artist, critic, and poet — he prefers the catchall term storyteller — proves to be, above all else, an engaging audience. When he speaks, his words are chosen carefully; when he’s silent, his face is animated, alive to possibilities. It was this mode of “enlightened conversation” that led his friend, actress Tilda Swinton, to make a film about him. “We realized that any film
we might make featuring John would place him, and an engaged chinwag with him, at its heart,” she says.The film’s first section, “Ways of Listening,” shows Swinton and Berger in discussion across the kitchen
table at Berger’s home in rural France, and was initially conceived
as a standalone piece. “We realized we were hungry for more John and conceived the idea of three further conversations through three further seasons,” Swinton says. The following sections feature
Berger in dialogue with other companions, including writers Ben Lerner, Akshi Singh, and
filmmaker Colin MacCabe. Each takes a topic close to Berger’s heart — animals, politics, history — and
explores it from different perspectives. For Swinton,
Berger represents “a compassionate and inspired belief
in the innate dignity of human beings and a refusal
to settle for anything less.” She continues to marvel at his “boundless curiosity and heart of joy.”
↧