A short analysis of a short amount of short films

The Films

The four short films that I found interesting are listed below: (in the order that I watched them.)

1) Curfew (2012) directed by Shawn Christensen

2)  La Jetée (1962) directed by Chris Marker

3)  Swimmer (2012) directed by Lynne Ramsay

4) Meshes of  the Afternoon (1943) directed by Maya Daren and Alexander Hammid

Curfew

Curfew is a very stylistic film, employing the use of both the camera and lighting to show off its distinct style. Throughout the film the camera changes from slow, steady cam shots to more handheld sporadic shots, changing the style depending on the environment, from the inside of the bowling alley to Richie's old apartment for example. This use of contrapuntal filming changes the tone in the film frequently, making it a more light hearted film into a film similar to DRIVE or Taxi Driver. This idea is reinforced by the slow zoom, pan and tracking shots in the short. These add a dramatic feeling to the film, making the audience expect some big-gun-fight-like situation to occur, but it doesn't. It subverts the audiences assumptions and instead of a dark film we get a light-hearted film about a man and his niece. This juxtaposition is also shown in the character Richie, who on the surface looks like a 'nobody' but is really just a normal guy.

The second part of the film I enjoyed was the lighting. There are three distinct lighting styles in the film which evoke different feelings. For example, the bowling alley dance scene uses low-key fill lighting which creates a warm, yellow look on the film, but then is juxtaposed by the extremely    low-key top lighting in the exterior shots, yet again reminiscent of the films said earlier, and again used to subvert the audiences expectations of the characters and their actions. Finally, there is the high-key fill lighting used in the opening bath scene and the subway scene. Only being used these two times connects the two scenes and they are both relating to Richie's attempted suicide, the thing that would have happened if Sophie hadn't appeared. This creates a harrowing yet positive feeling as we know that his life was and is saved by his niece.

La Jetée

the experimental La Jetée is more of a slideshow than it is a film, consisting only of still photos to present its narrative. The only time an explicit still photo isn't used is when The Women wakes, and that was shot with a motion camera as Chris Marker, the director, could only afford to hire the camera for one afternoon. The photography in the film is very interesting and plays off one of the films key themes: memory. I like the idea of using a structural technique, like a film consisting of stills, to add onto the core message a film has, and La Jetée is in my opinion a very good example of this. Another thing I really liked about the cinematography/photography was the different stills chosen and displayed to represent the scene. The photos strip the scenes to their bare essentials and in this way amplify the story and characters, whilst still presenting the story in an interesting and engaging way.

The second thing I took from the film was it's narrative. it is a science-fiction/romance and the way they were fused together worked very well in my opinion. the core message I took from the narrative was that one cannot escape the future by escaping into the past, and nothing can be done to change that. However, it could be suggested that although The Man dies, the love that blossoms in the film will be eternal, as the film is a circular narrative and involves time travel, meaning that past him, the one who sees him die, will eventually fall in love with the woman, over and over again. This idea of love and memory and fate ultimately place a bitter-sweet feeling in the mind of the audience. Overall, I think the narrative is used to present the idea that love is eternal but the ones who love aren't. 

Swimmer

Unlike La Jetée, which has an obvious story and structure, Swimmer has no cohesive narrative and is more like a poem than it is a film, focussing purely on what the viewer can see and what they take from it. I like this approach to filmmaking, but I also felt confused as I wasn't sure what I was meant to take from it.  However, the visuals are executed very well with every scene being rich, full of things to see and pick at. The film was made for the 2012 London Olympics. The mise-en-scene of the scene changes with each type of waterway the Swimmer visits, and this gives a nice indication of different cultures and stories which is fitting for the Olympics, with cultures from all over the world competing.
Another thing I liked about Swimmer was its use of sound and music. The fluidity between both diegetic and non-diegetic matched with the fluidity of the water and the swimmer himself, gliding through the water and the British channels we see throughout. The use of music was paired with conversations and phrases from movies and films, this gave the film an aesthetic that matched with the black and white of the film. The non-diegetic sound however is always paired with the diegetic of the swimmer swimming, which kept the film constantly moving, like the swimmer. In conclusion, I think swimmer is a very rich film but the lack of story prevents me from wanting to read deeper into it, in a sense the film is more of an experience and less of a story.

Meshes of the Afternoon

is an American experimental film created by the avant-garde artist Maya Daren and her husband Alexander Hammid. The film is surreal in form and also surreal in plot, being extremely loose with the rest being created by the viewer. However, at the same time the camera argues this by presenting the same story over and over again with little variations. This, as Daren said, makes the film "concerned with the interior experiences of the individual.  It does not record an event which could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience." the cinematography and the mise-en-scene show this clearly, with several motifs like a knife, a phone off a hook and a hooded figure with a mirror for a face. The mis-en-scene is repeated throughout the film making it a singular experience experienced by the same person time and time again. The cinematography aids this by also being circular in nature, with POV shots like an eye, and in a scene the camera rotates, disorientating the viewer and the Woman. 

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