The Village of M. Night Shyamalan

Of course, in M. Night Shyamalan's film The Village, the village itself is a character. I have heard critics say such things before, but somehow Shyamalan pulled it off in a singularly effective way in the film. (Bear with me, I'm going by memory... haven't seen it in years.)

Not only the village, but the individual structures take on personae, as do the woods, the weather, the fired torches, and most obviously, the wind itself. The human characters tend to melt into insignificance next to the things of Nature and the works of Man from the pre-technical age.
There is considerable Magic; in the picture above, the table seems to be an extension of the wooden structure in the rear; it seems to be feeding the people at the table. It seems to be almost a living arm... or tongue!... stuck out. This Magic reinforces the story of the film, which is a narrative about Narrative, not just any narrative, but reality-rendering and creation stories. Mr. Shyamalan actually succeeds so incredibly well that my limited intelligence could not grasp what he was doing: he was trying to give life to a sense of how reality is created... a sense that is unfamiliar and evanescent and slippery to our minds, so he was using the imagery of Winds and Fires... and Disguises and things not being at all what they seem to be!
Was he succesful? Please be aware that as I say this, the first time I saw the film, I did not particularly like it. Time changes all... gives us time to finish processing the complex information...
However, at the time I saw the film, I remember being terrifically moved by the Wind: the scenes where the Wind is the main character, where the Wind speaks and drowns out every human voice...

I am going to watch it again, maybe twice: first with audio, second without, and stare at the images of  Magic, Rain, Earth, Wind, and Fire.

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