It's so far from perfect in so many little ways, and yet it's still one of the most perfect experiences, one of the most perfect inspirations, I've ever watched. It's got some problems with its editing, especially that horrendous take before the abrupt cut to commercial, the 60s hammy acting and campy dialogue are hammy and campy, but god damn everything about this premise and this setting was done flawlessly. The emptiness was felt. It was massive. The focus on open spaces, tall rooms, empty seats/stations, long shadows, it was all perfectly directed. It all felt liminal, almost ominous, expressionistic, especially toward the end with the oblique angles. The placement of the main character in so many containers that threaten to lock themselves was perfect selection of shooting space. The theatre with the enormous dark curtains and endless empty chairs engulfing everything in frame but the subject and the tiny doorway behind him, like he's standing in the void, stuck on the precipice of his reality. The theatre is a perfect location for all its symbolism, and the watchful camera angles of the projection room scene cut to reveal nothing, making the feeling of being watched that much more ephemeral. The mirror breaks, even though the mirror was reality a second ago, and our reality is revealed to be a mere image that can be shattered by force. The ending is absolute bullshit, all the mystery and psychological nightmarishness revealed to have come from nothing interesting, but it's also absolutely perfect, because the whole dream-like, surreal experience is just a product of the mind's unease, in both the character and the audience. The character is terrified by what he sees that isn't there, and the audience is unnerved by what's missing from what we're shown. The unrest lives in the mind, creating experiences, reality-bending experiences, out of actual nothing.
This has so many problems but it's also a picturesque encapsulation of what I love in art and what I want to do with my own writing and filmmaking. It helps that "alone on empty earth" is one of my favourite tropes. It's a fascinating but often misused premise that's actually done justice here by all the sweeping movements and angles that overwhelm with emptiness, all the shooting in liminal spaces through observant and almost human camera angles, all the rich visual symbolism, the surrealist and expressionist approach that skews the sense of reality. It's art that is experienced rather than watched. There's a million different readings that can come from almost every shot and every detail here, but they all invariably point to the fragile line between mind and reality.
Review by Kevin BeazleyBlockedParent2021-04-07T03:38:43Z
It's so far from perfect in so many little ways, and yet it's still one of the most perfect experiences, one of the most perfect inspirations, I've ever watched. It's got some problems with its editing, especially that horrendous take before the abrupt cut to commercial, the 60s hammy acting and campy dialogue are hammy and campy, but god damn everything about this premise and this setting was done flawlessly. The emptiness was felt. It was massive. The focus on open spaces, tall rooms, empty seats/stations, long shadows, it was all perfectly directed. It all felt liminal, almost ominous, expressionistic, especially toward the end with the oblique angles. The placement of the main character in so many containers that threaten to lock themselves was perfect selection of shooting space. The theatre with the enormous dark curtains and endless empty chairs engulfing everything in frame but the subject and the tiny doorway behind him, like he's standing in the void, stuck on the precipice of his reality. The theatre is a perfect location for all its symbolism, and the watchful camera angles of the projection room scene cut to reveal nothing, making the feeling of being watched that much more ephemeral. The mirror breaks, even though the mirror was reality a second ago, and our reality is revealed to be a mere image that can be shattered by force. The ending is absolute bullshit, all the mystery and psychological nightmarishness revealed to have come from nothing interesting, but it's also absolutely perfect, because the whole dream-like, surreal experience is just a product of the mind's unease, in both the character and the audience. The character is terrified by what he sees that isn't there, and the audience is unnerved by what's missing from what we're shown. The unrest lives in the mind, creating experiences, reality-bending experiences, out of actual nothing.
This has so many problems but it's also a picturesque encapsulation of what I love in art and what I want to do with my own writing and filmmaking. It helps that "alone on empty earth" is one of my favourite tropes. It's a fascinating but often misused premise that's actually done justice here by all the sweeping movements and angles that overwhelm with emptiness, all the shooting in liminal spaces through observant and almost human camera angles, all the rich visual symbolism, the surrealist and expressionist approach that skews the sense of reality. It's art that is experienced rather than watched. There's a million different readings that can come from almost every shot and every detail here, but they all invariably point to the fragile line between mind and reality.
This is what I want to make. 10/10