Movie Muse by Pete Oppenheimer
Early on in the film, and before Co-vid emerges, we get to experience Tony’s very engaging teaching style as he presents, more graphically than I can do here, the discoveries that he and his fellow researchers have been making with regard to the very different type of consciousness functioning in babies than that of adults. Studying brain activity, researchers have been able to see which areas of the brain are lit up and active during different types of stimulation and provocation. When a new and interesting stimulus is presented to the brain of an adult, the con- sciousness narrows, like a spotlight, and fixes on that particular object, while all other areas of the brain remain dark or inactive. They expected the same would be true of a baby, but what they found was that when something novel is presented to a baby, his or her entire brain lights up and becomes active, the boundaries between a particular object and everything else are much more fluid. In this case, during what is called Lantern Consciousness, one thing is not separate from all else but is part of a whole.
Silent Friend (Germany), which swept 6 awards at the prestigious 2025 Venice Film Festival, is a visionary cin- ematic work of art about how we are connected to the living world around us. Through the interweaving of its three, century-spanning storylines, it unveils the possibility of detecting and com- muning with a type of consciousness that we share with plants. Indeed the primary protagonist standing above all three stories is the centuries old Ginkgo Bilboa tree, living in the botanical garden of the 500 year old Marburg University in Germany. The times depicted are 1908, 1972 and 2020. Each is shot using a different technology and style depicting the tone and tenor of the time. In each of the three, the main character is a solitary outsider, seeking major scientific breakthroughs and striving to decode nature’s signals.
Even the sharp boundary adults feel between subject and object, inside and out- side, self and “other” are not experienced by a baby. This is what Freud referred to as Oceanic Consciousness, during which, for example, when a baby’s entire field of vision is taken up by her mother’s smiling face, for all intents and purposes, at that moment, the baby is the smiling face of her mother shining down upon her. Using various types of sensors and computers, neuro-scientists are able to visu- ally represent brain activity. There are some startlingly beautiful and moving (in both senses of the word) images depicting the differences between Spotlight Consciousness and Lantern Consciousness, the later of which is what is found in the brain activity of babies, as well as adults in deep meditation or under the influence of certain psychedelic drugs. As Tony tells his students. “Babies can be said to be ‘high’ all the time.” It has now been established that plants when confronted with certain stimuli, such as environmental changes, physical damage or chemical attack, also display electric impulses that are conceptually identical to human brain signals, although functioning through a completely different biology. These are lofty, complex and highly consequential discoveries of modern science, and it is a gift and a wonder that through cinema, these discoveries can, in an entertaining and engaging way, be not only presented intellectually, but that the viewer can be given a taste of their somewhat mind-blowing implications. The cinematic techniques and editing choices of Silent Friend have the capability of putting us into this fluid Lantern or Oceanic Consciousness, whereby plants and trees become foregrounded and we humans appear to be less set apart from, and more of a piece with, the entire world around, including plants. It’s a very elevated and transformative state suggested by and depicted in Silent Friend .
In 1908 we meet Grete and accompany her to her admissions interview. There she is seated below an imposing panel of old, white men, resentful of being forced to admit women into their patriarchal domain for the first time in the university’s 400 year history. They seem intent on humiliating and sexually harassing her with inuendo and embarrassing questions (reminiscent of what, at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Clarence Thomas was alleged to have done to his former assistant, Anita Hill). In spite of their worst efforts, Grete gets admitted, and we get to follow her through her journey of self-discovery, personal empowerment and accomplish- ment, as well as her becoming conversant with that stately and protective Ginkgo tree. In the middle story, 1972, much has changed on that campus, where now most of the markedly co-ed students are dressed, coifed and self-styled as hippies. Here the main character is Hannes, a farm boy whose simplicity, introversion, skepti- cism and reticence about the benefits of free love and drugs, set him apart from the crowd. He does, though, fall for a hippie girl and gets drawn into her rudi- mentary research into plant consciousness and the possibility of inter-kingdom communication. Hannes too, develops an intimate relationship with the Ginkgo tree. The modern storyline takes place in 2020 and features a Hong Kong based neuro-scientist, named Tony, who arrives at the university as a visiting professor to share and further his research into the fundamental differences between the consciousness of babies and that of adults.
Silent Friend will not be to every- one’s taste nor inclination, but to those open and receptive to a new way of experiencing the boundar- ies between inside and outside, self and other, it can provide a taste of what it means to experience a type of communion with and even communication between all liv- ing beings. For those open to such things, it’s a trip I highly recom- mend taking. For the cost of a cup of coffee, Silent Friend is currently available to rent for online streaming from Prime Video and Apple TV.
Just weeks into his tenure, Covid hits, and he becomes somewhat stranded on the nearly deserted campus, where the Ginkgo tree becomes his closest companion, and he adapts his specialized, neurological technology to study plant and botani- cal consciousness, of course with the Ginkgo as his primary subject.
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