I think this week had my favourite films of all and there is loads of stuff that I think will be very helpful for my grad film 'The Hollow Men'. I loved 7:35 De La Mañana and Whale Valley will likely prove to be an important reference, particularly the colour palette. Another aspect of the films this week which was surprising, was how personal they felt to me. But I'll get into that in each individual relevant film.
Fata Morgana - https://vimeo.com/228982151
I have very mixed feelings about this film. I don't think it was entirely effective for me, but there were some fantastic aspects to it, so I think I'll focus on them. For me, the best part of the film was the father. I think the characterisation and the performance were exactly on point and he was a very powerful character.
The mother was very openly grieving. The performance was good and she seemed believable enough, but it was a much more typical reaction to the death of a child that you expect to see in a film. However, it was the father which I found very relatable. He very much reminded me of my own father, because I'm certain in that kind of situation he would react similarly.
The character doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve. He outwardly focuses on the seemingly unimportant things, like the jewellers opening times. If you aren't paying attention, this might appear as though he genuinely doesn't care that much, but this is definitely not the case. He focuses on these unimportant details as a coping mechanism. Outwardly, he maintains the illusion of someone who is calm and collected. But he's breaking inside.
I think this characterisation is particularly powerful in the moment where he lets his mask slip. It's a beautiful moment of visual storytelling. After his daughter's funeral, he is talking to the guests, trying to carry on like nothing is out of the ordinary. In one moment, he plays with a child, probably a friend or a relative, trying to stop them crying. Then he stops and just holds the child tightly. Heartbroken.
Rewind Forward - https://vimeo.com/labellefilm/rewind-forward
Again, this film wasn't entirely effective for me, but I'll focus on the aspects that I do like. However, I feel I must say that the title, is truly horrific. I get what it's trying to do with 'Rewind Forward', but it's not a good title.
Anyway, on to more positive things! It think the cinematography in the opening shots was absolutely stunning. I will definitely use them as a reference for 'The Hollow Men'. The car slowly drives through the mist as at that point in the film, the past is still a clouded mystery. Surreal, but beautiful.
There was one cut in the film that blew my mind. I absolutely loved it. When we see the archive footage, the father bends down to pick up a rock on the beach. We match cut to the son picking up a rock in the present day. It was almost continuity editing. It's a shame there wasn't more of this kind of thing in the film, but it was definitely a very memorable moment. Perhaps if there had been more, it would have cheapened that one powerful and poetic moment.
The story about the boy on the bike was very powerful. We hear the story through voiceover at the start of the film and then by the end of the film we hear it again. But this time it's from the perspective of his grandparents and it is entirely recontextualised. I found this to be a very interesting narrative device.
Whale Valley - https://vimeo.com/61350155
Whale Valley is probably my favourite film we've watched this year. I found it very impactful and personal. I'm aware that for some of the film's we've watched this term, I've actually been pretty negative about them. I don't know. Maybe I just have strange tastes. However, Whale Valley was absolutely fantastic. This is basically going to be an unstructured list of things I really liked about the film.
I really appreciated the look of the film. It's filled with dead feeling, desolate, desaturated landscape shots. I felt cold, wet and tired just looking at it the film. I felt truly lonely and trapped in this dire location. This style very effectively reflected the character's mental states.
Some of the sound design was absolutely fantastic. The landscape just felt empty. I particularly liked the sound of the rope tight around the boy's neck. It was such an uncomfortable sound to hear. Everything felt still and dead.
I loved the dialogue scene with the whole family around the dinner table. The dialogue was very stilted and awkward. The main character's felt so uncomfortable. Their parents just didn't seem to understand them at all. It was very relatable.
Possibly the most powerful moment of the film for me was where the wee boy got out of bed to check if his brother was still breathing. Thought it said a lot without having to resort to dialogue. It was a great moment of visual storytelling. You really got that he truly loves his brother, but you immediately understand his fear and his paranoia.
I liked the wee boy's childish misunderstanding of depression. Its actually like he understands that there's something wrong with his brother, but he doesn't know why. He just says "I think he’s feeling sad again".
The beached whale wasn't exactly the most subtle of metaphors, but hey; it did the job. Sometimes the really on the nose stuff can still be effective, and I think this film gets away with it because of how nuanced it is.
My favourite shot of the film was the handheld short as big brother angrily walks over to the kid. It felt very aggressive and threatening.
I really liked the costume design. They wore these horrible, uncomfortable looking woollen jumpers.
I really liked that it was happy to just take its time. It was in no rush to go anywhere. I love films that just spend a bit of time with a character and you just catch a little snapshot of their lives.
There is a really interesting blog post attached to the film. It's definitely worth a read.
This film felt really personal to me. I could relate to so much of it. I'm from a place in Northern Ireland called Loanends and there are times where it feels just like Whale Valley. It feels still and empty. I also have experience with depression and I think the film captured that really beautifully. I don't want to go too much into all that, but I just wanted to say that I think the film is one that will stay with me for a long time. Such a beautiful piece of cinema.
Dog Walker - https://vimeo.com/206111509
I liked that, from the get-go, the film was very obviously from the lady's point of view. I always like when films are very subjectively from one character's perspective. I think the audience is much more on their side, simply because as the protagonist discovers a new piece of information, so does the audience. They are almost like a surrogate for the audience in that sense.
I particularly enjoyed the shot following her through the house as she goes from room to room looking for the dog. And then again when she talks on the phone and paces round and round the house. Every time we cut she’s in a new location. This really heightens how uncomfortable and stressed out the character is, because she literally cannot sit still. It's a much more dynamic way of showing this than having a static shot where she paces back and forth in front of it.
I think the whole opening to the film was so intriguing and I really liked it a lot. However, I think the film started to fall apart a little bit once she left the house. I think we started to drift from her perspective and no longer relate to her so strongly. I can't quite put my finger on why this is, so perhaps I need to rewatch the film.
However, there were several small, petty things which I think certainly contributed to my sudden disconnection from the film. I don't think any one of these is the sole cause, but they stood out to me, so I might as well mention them. I think the lady was really struggling a bit too much with the weight of the dog; I mean, it is a big dog, but it's still only a dog. Surely it wouldn't be that heavy? I do think the actress got on my nerves a little bit. Why? I don't know. Perhaps that's the main issue. Finally, I didn't really like the closing shot during the credits on the train. I think it could have been done very well, but it tried to be both funny and serious. That's obviously not an issue in and of itself; in fact that's often my favourite type of film! However, the film aims for both and hits neither. It's not funny and it's too difficult to take seriously.
Perhaps my strangest issue with the film was that I literally have no idea why the ending happened the way it did. I understand what happened, but I have no idea why. Like why did he pretend to be nice to her? Why did he help her with her bag and ride the train with her? If he was always going to steal it, then why didn't he just do it straight away? It's not like he'd moved to a less populated area or anything. The punch comes from nowhere. And I get that it was meant to be funny, but I was so confused as to why anything was happening that it just left me numb to the film.
It's frustrating when a promising film has a bad ending, because your lasting impression of the film is that it was bad, and you sort of start to forget the stuff that was done so well at the start of the film.
7:35 De La Mañana - https://vimeo.com/36470597
I don't have much to say about this little film, but I just wanted to mention it because I did really like it. At first, it felt quite surreal; a little bit like Twin Peaks; with the music and the stylings. I loved that you sort of wonder why the lady seems so scared at first, and not flattered. But then everything suddenly makes sense when the bomb is revealed. It's a very funny reversal, and a bit disturbing.
I wondered how you would direct the dance like that. It was clear they didn't quite know what they were doing, because they were very shaky. I guess you could explain what they all have to do, but make sure to not over rehearse it.
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