Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World

“How doth the city sit solitary, That was full of people! How is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations. Behold, Oh Lord; for I am in distress: My bowels are troubled; Mine heart is turned within me; For I have grievously revelled; Abroad the sword bereaveth, At home, there is as death.” “Lamentations,” which has a total running time of 435 minutes, comprises two parts: “The Dream of the Last Historian” and “The Sublime Calculation.” Each part can be rented separately. “Elder occupies a unique place in Canada. Both philosopher and filmmaker, Elder’s films, particularly his more recent, combine in a distinctively Canadian synthesis the cosmic emotionality of a Stan Brakhage with the didacticism of a Jean-Luc Godard who might have studied Heidegger instead of Mao Tse Tung.” – Michael Dorland, “Bruce Elder: Lamentations and Beyond,” Cinema Canada, November 1985