Ears is a bizarrely delightful joy to watch.
It opens simply enough: Lui (Daniele Parisi) wakes up at his girlfriend’s apartment one morning with a ringing sound in his ears. What’s more, he’s found she’s left him a note on the fridge informing him that his friend Luigi has died. Neither of these events are particularly ordinary because 1) Lui has never had a problem with ringing in his ears before, and 2) he doesn’t have the slightest clue as to who his friend Luigi is. And so we follow Lui throughout his strange day that begins with a nun being beaten senseless with a shoe by an angry widow and ends with a redefinition of success and happiness.
I realize that Ears may not be for everyone. It’s an artsy character study filmed in black and white with a metaphorical aspect ratio (it begins in 1:1 and expands) that dabbles in absurdism. And for the most part, it executes on what it sets out to do reasonably, although it’s not without a couple flaws.
Ears presents itself as a Kafka-esque machination, an absurd metaphysical prison — the metaphysical prison being a natural side effect of society — its protagonist is trapped in. The day Lui goes through is circular, bureaucratic, random, and meaningless, from which he makes important self-discoveries. Or so the film tells us. Very few of these elements that make up its tone are executed with the precision to make the absurdity have enough weight to feel earned as the natural conclusion drawn from a study of society’s ills. Instead, the moments that are intended to be comedic due to the universal acceptance of the inherent artifice permeating the social construct feel half-baked. It feels less Kafka-esque (or Kafka’s filmic equivalent, in my opinion at least, the Coen Brothers) and more Kafka-lite. We feel like we should laugh because we should, not because we want to.
Even so, Ears is a lot of fun to watch, and when the stars align and the absurd mingles with the real in just the right way, it reveals the great talent that went into the film all around. The cast all seem to understand the attempted tone and nail their performances. Many segments are genuinely funny. Some are even moving. And the decision to imperceptibly widen the aspect ratio the longer the movie runs to reflect the widening of of Lui’s perspective is ingenious.
Ears may be one of the most ironic movies I’ve ever seen. I don’t mean everyone in it is in flannel, trilbies, and beards. I mean that it is a character study of a man who has put a barrier between himself and enjoying life. He is a man who feels he must never compromise or accept anything less than what he feels he deserves. He feels the joys of the common man are beneath him — he of all people is not content to simply exist but excel. And so he has placed himself so far above the earth that he can no longer take joy in its simpler pleasures.
But Lui’s journey from his high horse is couched in an art film that will drive most people away from it as soon as they see its aspect ratio and color palette. And I think that, intentional or not, is genius. Ears is a film that is likely to draw the exact crowd that needs to absorb its themes the most.
Despite its flaws, Ears is an endearing film that draws from the best of the traditions of the subtly absurd. It’s a film that’s of a rare breed, and any attempt at one such as it deserves encouragement.
