Story of My Death

Story of My Death is a singular work, and its originality is apparent in every frame.

True to its title, the film approaches death as both narrative endpoint and formal focus, its initial vivacious mischief giving way to a Manichean fable about the waning of the light.

Serra creates rigid, highly pressurized images on the verge of shattering with the force of mystery and desire.

Serra's typically cerebral direction has a more vibrant quality due to the clarity of his images, though certain drawn-out sequences have an alienating effect on the drama. Still, Story of My Death manages to connect its profound aims with a devious atmosphere to match the turn of the century backdrop.

Mr. Serra has said his film portrays the eclipse of Enlightenment rationality by the violent forces of Romanticism. It’s a tidy overarching conceit, but the film’s lived-in feel does make for one vivid way of imagining shifts in thought.

A picture whose tone wanders between arid academic exercise and something close to parody of the more pretentious trends in current auteur cinema.