The Singing Forest (2003)

Truly Dreadful Film

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I have seen many movies in my days, some terrific and some not-so terrific. This movie is very exceptional in the way that it actually is beyond this spectrum of good or bad, simply by being so extremely horrible that I find it hard to fathom that a human mind could have produced it.What can I say? The camera work is atrocious, the cinematography is stunning in its badness, the acting is among the worst of all time, the sound is terrible, the directing is beyond sloppy.... And then I haven't mentioned the stupidest, most obnoxious thing about the movie yet: the plot itself. I mean... come on! The plot is so full of inconsistencies, so full of mind-numbing dumbness and so terribly written that even when I think about it I get angry. Two lovers die during the holocaust of WWII (which began in 1939, not 1933), and find each other again in the "next life". Personally, I find this to be very stupid, but hey, perhaps that's just me. Maybe the father, who's sleeping with his daughter's soon-to-be husband, is a paragon of good characters. Maybe the fact that the daughter - for unknown reasons - is okay with her father marrying her betrothed is supposed to be beautiful (perhaps she's supposed to function as the embodiment of destiny - that eventually brings the two morons back together). Maybe this is all a poetic vision? In my opinion, it sounds completely retarded, but then again, who am I to complain about the very famous Jorge Ameer, whose many movies enrich IMDb's bottom 100? But GOD, how stupid can a script be? Why on earth did they even bring in the holocaust element? It's.. just.. STUPID! It has no relevance at all, so why bother? Those two idiots could as well have been killed during the crash of Hindenburg, or even during the battle of Hastings - the point is, it doesn't matter. I could also rant for an hour about the internal logic of the movie, which is astounding in its absence, but if I do that this review will never end.The Singing Forest is not a thought-provoking movie either - it's far too idiotic to be. However, it can be seen as thought-provoking in one sense: it makes one contemplate how on earth it is possible to achieve such dreadfulness! Moreover, there are several shots (by the seaside) where it is impossible to hear the dialogue (which is awful, by the way) due to the bad sound. Furthermore, several scenes just neglect all speech and replace it with appalling music, some of which is so terrible that I had nightmares after hearing it. The ONLY piece of music that is good in the movie is the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but it is used very inappropriately, and thus it stirs hatred rather than anything else. Having to hear such wonderful music in such a god-awful movie just makes me mad. Also, the visuals are terrible beyond the deepest strata of imagination. That means "not very good".I've seen some reviews that state that this is an artistically perfect movie, just like a great poem. True, the movie may have a message under its facade of badness; and yes, it should receive credit for being very original. However, being an enthusiast and student of poetry myself, I say that every aspect of the movie is just too terrible for any of the so-called "poetic subtlety" to be able to manifest and get through to the viewer. To compare this movie to a poem is like comparing Shakespeare to a rock - it just doesn't work.I rated the film one star. I'm saddened by the fact that I can't rate negatively. I saw this movie, and I was never the same afterwards. It left me with a terrible feeling of disgust, and with an emptiness that I never thought was possible to feel. Seeing the Singing Forest is as entertaining as hitting yourself in the head with a hammer.I guess my conclusion is: DON'T WATCH IT!!

This film is about a man meeting his lover of his previous life, who happens to be his daughter's fiancé.I could not believe how bad this film is! There is a very big problem with every single aspect of this film, be it the plot, the acting, the lighting, sound, cinematography, wardrobe or directing. Each of these are described below! The plot is bad to start with and it is very poorly told. The acting is non existent. The actors barely stand there reciting the lines. The sets are not made or decorated in any way, it seems as if the director just shot the film inside his house. The wardrobe is very old fashioned and plain, as if the actors wore the cheapest item they have in their own wardrobe. There is no costume adviser or even any budget for clothes, I can bet.The lighting is very bad. Most of the time the film is not adequately lit. In the scene where Christopher drinks beer in the living room, the only source of light is the lamp beside Christopher. This makes the beer bottles and even the coffee table dark and indiscernible because they are against the light.In addition, the soundtrack is a big problem as well. There is a high level of ambient noise, and sometimes we even hear traffic outside the house and hear dogs barking! In the scene where the two men talk on the seaside, the waves are so loud that the sound of waves literally drown out the conversation.However, the worst is yet to be described! The cinematography is shocking. 90% of the time, the camera sits on a tripod for two or three minutes. This means that most of the time, the camera does not move, and the shot length is very long. This means that most of the conversations are filmed with two people sitting and talking. We do not have any camera shots of their facial expressions or reactions. For example, in the scene where Christopher lies in bed talking to the standing daughter, the camera is positioned behind Christopher, so that during the long conversation we could not see his face at all. There are also many times that the cameraman decides that the characters are in fact not in the centre of the visual field, and shifts the camera to the side a bit. Oh, why does it take you so long to realise the camera is off centre? It is almost comical for the film to have a black storyboard to serve as the narrator. It looks like someone holding a black cardboard in front of the camera. Because of the high level of ambient noise, when the black storyboard comes in, there is total silence. Then the ambient noise starts again when the film resumes.Believe me, this film is really very bad. Avoid!

I saw the House of Adam, the filmmakers latest film. It prompted me to rent "The Singing Forest". I don't remember reading so many negative remarks about a film. But then I stop to think and after reviewing a few pages of movies I noticed the following. All of them had someone who taught the film was the "worst movie ever" or someone, probably a relative who followed up by adding they thought it was also "awful". I liked the premise and what the filmmaker was trying to achieve here. I think it was overly ambition, but nonetheless I got the message. I found Singing Forest to be artistic and poetic. I like any film - A LOT - that has a lot of creativity and originality. Believe me... this one does. There are a lot of subtle messages in words, images not necessarily associated with what's going on in the main story. I guess I' call it a "back story". The reunification of the souls was quiet clever. I did not expect the ending. But then again, I did not know where this was going as I watched. That was refreshing. The story was gripping and engaging. I'll definitely recommend for my friends to watch or buy. It's a good title for any indie film collection of hidden gems.

There is deep meaning to this film. I watched it the other day and found it to be thought provoking and very profound. There were some production problems, I guess for its low budget, but all in all, I really liked this movie. I specially loved the music. I can't wait to see what the director comes up with next. You can tell he has a lot of talent and originality. Making reference to the gay holocaust is something that I found to be refreshing and have not seen in any other film since "Bent" which I loved. The moving back and forth within time periods was effective. The actors did a descent job. I'd like to see more work from Craig Pinkston. I read all of the bad reviews on this site. I think most here are too focused on the production values of the film rather than the message.