Anyone who (like me) savors the aquatic sequences in “Avatar: The Way of Water” but tires of its action and visual effects might find an intriguing art-house substitute in “Human Flowers of Flesh.” The serene feature, directed by the German filmmaker Helena Wittmann and largely shot on 16-millimeter film, is about as far as one can get from a blockbuster, but it shares with “Avatar” a love of seafaring, a reverence for briny blue hues and an inclination to surrender to the quiet grandeur of nature.
The film unfolds as a series of cinematic seascapes captured onboard a boat sailing from Marseille toward Algeria. The captain, Ida (Angeliki Papoulia), and her crew are seldom shown speaking. Instead, they laze about on the sun-baked planks, read books and poetry, play board games or contemplate the horizon as waves rock the ship. Traversing sea and shore, the characters seem most comfortable near and on the water, and Wittmann follows their lead, rarely letting the Mediterranean leave ear- or eyeshot.
There is little story beyond the snatches of conversation we receive, but “Human Flowers of Flesh” brims with visual and aural detail from the rocky coasts and gurgling reefs. Because of the scarcity of dialogue, the film’s few lines acquire outsize importance and can sometimes feel overwrought, as when a crew member reads aloud about wanderers who find comfort in the world’s smallness. Better to let the ocean water do the talking — it could babble for hours.
Human Flowers of Flesh
Not rated. In English, French, Portuguese, Tamazight and Serbo-Croatian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.
