Taoism has five elements, each one superior to the next in turn: wood, earth, water, fire, and metal. From the darkest depths of the mine to the lift that transports space travellers to their shuttle, 4 Elements not only shows man's awe of nature, it shows how the two are inextricably linked. These four elements were believed to be essential to life.
Rickels alternates spectacular scenes (an immense curtain of smoke that rises out of the forest as if by magic, a glimmering rocket blasting through the night, fishermen as they haul in gigantic traps full of jumbo crabs) with intimate, almost tender images that reveal the men in their literal and metaphorical nakedness (in the shower, scrubbing each other's backs, silently drinking coffee before heading off to work, hoarsely singing melancholy songs around the campfire). 4 Elements shows in a poetic way the battle of humanity with the four primal elements. The plot structure can be divided into six stages: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.
Plot, referring to the basic storyline of the play, is the structure of a play which tells what happens as the story goes. The precise and aesthetic images tell their story without words, and are accompanied by a musical score that often seamlessly merges with sounds from the film. The followings are the elements of drama and their brief description: Plot. She follows forest fire-fighters, king crab fishermen on the Bering Sea, German mineworkers and Russian cosmonauts. In 4 Elements, Rickels shows how man lives and works in both struggle and symbiosis with fire, water, earth and air. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators.
This film is now part of an ambitious four-part documentary on the primordial elements. In 2003, Dutch director Jiska Rickels won several awards with her critically acclaimed graduation film Untertage, about an old lignite mine in Germany.