Act of God

MOVIE #1,343 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 02.02.24 My Peter Greenaway Director Focus is probably my most in-depth deep-dive on any one director in the D.F. Archives. But it isn’t encyclopedic: I missed a handful of short films, some of which are impossible to find, and others like this film and Making a Splash, simply alluded me (there’s also the slew of new [!] feature-length pictures trapped in various stages of development/release hell — see below). So, I’ll be trying to fill in the gaps when and if I can. (Ed. Note: I will also be debuting a series on the short film work of David Lynch on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting next week, as well.) Act of God is a 25-minute documentary short made for TV. It essentially takes the form of his classic mockumentary The Falls but utilizes it for real stories of folks who have survived lightning strikes (it also recycles some of Michael Nyman’s excellent music from that film as well). It’s pretty good.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
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ACT OF GOD presents lightning as an intrusion of nature into the placid surface of upper-middle-class English life. Greenaway's dry wit sets its tone, creating a film completely removed from the intense physical experience of being struck by lightning. It was released on October 12, 1980.