Perfect Days

I felt remarkably agitated after finishing the album (almost-finishing: I still have to have a final listen, top and tail the tracks and decide what's not going on the vinyl version). For weeks I've wanted to see the Wim Wenders film Perfect Day, and had an aborted attempt a few weeks ago where I had such bad post-viral fatigue after a Covid infection that I got halfway down the street, and had to come home again.

Yesterday's treat was to go to see it: I found a cinema in London that was still screening it and headed down there. What a wonderful film! It is completely mesmerising. It celebrates boringness and contentment, and as a direct opposite to many films, you find yourself hoping that nothing will happen to upset the protagonist's equilibrium. He has the most meaningful of lives, in that his lifestyle means so much to him. He is useful, wise, and engages with people whom life often passes by and with things that many people don't notice. It's a critique both of film and of storytelling. So much depends on his facial expressions; the actor is a genius, as are the supporting cast. They are all completely believable.

There are so many different versions of catharsis. I found Barbie cathartic; that too was a critique of film-making and was a fantastic riposte to toxic masculinity, because it bypassed it entirely. I came out of that film laughing and happy.

This one, I came out with a feeling of complete serenity. The sound design is excellent: subtly, you start to listen to every sound that is happening, and you gradually build up the way the protagonist measures his day by being attuned to everything around him. 

You know he is doing the most dirty of jobs imaginable, but the toilets themselves are pristine by the time he's finished with them. They are quiet and calm, a reflection of his nature. And even in the aerial shots of Tokyo's version of spaghetti junction, his van is often to be seen pootling in the opposite direction of the chaotic traffic jams.

How clever to make a film that is so restrained yet so beautifully detailed. Artistic wisdom was at work from the whole team involved from the director, through the actors, to the props, locations and sound. Perfect Days, perfect film.