Laura Stark

Was moved to tears of happiness and longing by the film “The Man in the Hat”. This surreal dream-like film is a journey of a foreign man (in a hat) travelling through a rural part of southern France with a photo of a woman, and those he encounters on the way. With almost no dialogue, it’s mostly soundtrack, part ASMR, part slow motion “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou” which was itself based on Homer’s Odyssey, as this film seems ‘in part’ to be. Very moving and tender, it is musically brilliant. Heart-wrenchingly so. It’s Ry Cooder and Miles Davis meets Django Reinhardt and Erik Satie. Then suddenly an aria or beautiful falsetto finds itself piercing through the hypnotic ASMR of lonely, despondent people dining together, yet alone, in a remote inn or cafe. A quiet film, that is also musically profound, it is full of sound and fury, signifying, in fact, EVERYTHING…Timeless and universal, this film is about life. It’s about the joy of simple pleasures, like food, love and friendship. It’s meditative and zen. It’s romantic and tragic. It’s about music, food, and lost love. It’s about loneliness, aging and isolation. It’s all about people of a certain age, in fact. It’s about finding meaning, reasons to live again and LOVE in the denouement one’s life. It’s about coming back after loss. It’s about being good, helping strangers, making connections, even when a partner is now gone. Even when alone. I’m rather shell-shocked and moved by this profoundly beautiful and cathartic film. Waves of emotion overcame me. Tears were shed throughout. And in a good way. I had to stop and start this film repeatedly as I was overcome by waves of emotion, grief, joy, regret, and love. “The little things remind me of you” are the recurrent lines if you wait for the song. You’ll hear it and see it throughout and may be the key to the mystery of the woman in the photo. I also thought of my own loved ones, of loss and longing, every second I watched this film. This film is also about the importance of the simple pleasures in life, but also kindness, even in fleeting connections, even with complete strangers, and the tragic loneliness that can beset people as they age if new connections are not made in later life, once old ones are lost. In short, this film is about living again.