Aspen

Frederick Wiseman – 1991 – USA

In one of his nearly annual films, Frederick Wiseman’s ever passive eye here takes a glance at the city of Aspen, Colorado, especially in the context of its role as one of the premier resort towns in the U.S.  Skiing is at the hub of this culture, of course, but around it has grown a less-obvious one, designed to cater to the myriad of needs of locals and (but mostly) tourists.  In a succession of unflinching and embarrassing scenes, we see pasty, talentless, rhythmless middle-class Americans indulging in all manner of activities that are semblances of what someone has led them to believe the rich do.  After inching down a slope at a snail’s pace, they dance with young instructors, take painting classes, go to bars to listen to cover bands, and even attend churches to discuss religious matters with strangers.  Wiseman’s films are resolutely non-judgmental, and Aspen is neither an expose nor a puff-piece, which encourages the audience to draw its own conclusions about what has been shown, [as I have just done].  What makes Wiseman’s films so great is that they repeatedly prove that a socio-political agenda in a documentary can promise to do no more than preach to the choir, while an unbiased fascination with real human behavior will always translate into an interesting film.