Sunday, January 19, 2014

Mirage

Another Sky (1954) - Lambert
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A comely English Governess Rose (Victoria Grayson) arrives in bustling Marrakech, Morocco. She is hired by aging socialite Selena to keep her company and do house chores. She is escorted by Ahmed, a stoic Arab who shows her around the town. Even though she doesn't speak much French or Arabic, Rose gets by with the help of Ahmed, who seems to understand everything. One day at the party, thrown by a flamboyant American Bancroft at a former Sultan's palace, Rose lays her eyes on a young Arab musician, Tayeb. After several rendezvous arranged by Ahmed, Rose is head over heels for Tayeb. His sudden disappearance makes Rose to abandon everything and go on a whirlwind journey into the foreign desert landscape.

Writer Gavin Lambert, a friend of writer Paul Bowles (Shetering Sky, Up Above the World) perfectly captures the melancholy and loneliness of the desert in his only film. Elegantly photographed and with great local music, Another Sky is a beautiful film about magnetic force of the desert landscapes, being lost while searching for something unattainable, a mirage.