|
|
 |
Content
The acting in this film is very good, especially because it has to compensate for the lack of dialogue and/or title cards to tell the audience what’s going on. While the body language and facial expressions are subtle, they are at the same time very communicative. The pace of the story is a bit slow in places, but I believe that that is due to the nature of a silent, black-and-white auteur film that deals with abstract concepts. Although the ending of the film is surprising, it is well-balanced. (In other words, the twist might be unexpected, but it is not far-fetched.)
Visual Look
The visuals in this film are excellent and creative. The film is completely in black and white (up until the last minute or two), which –combined with the fact that it is basically a silent movie—gives it a much more esoteric and artistic feel. The texture of the black-and-white palette falls into a middle range, giving the film a somewhat muted look, much as one would see in an old black and white photo.
What really got my attention was the fantastic layout of the different scenes and the transitions that were used. Arsenijevic did an excellent job of selecting locations that allowed him to get interesting perspectives and be creative with blocking. One of the best location/transition uses in the film occurs when Adam is hurrying down a sidewalk that runs along a canal; the sidewalk ends in a flight of steps that go up to an arched bridge that crosses the canal. We see Adam jog down the sidewalk, go up the steps, and as he’s crossing the bridge, the scene slowly cross-dissolves to another stone bridge that looks almost exactly like the one by the canal; however, as the camera pulls back, we see that it is actually a figurine inside of a snowglobe in Eve’s bedroom. Hats off to Mr. Arsenijevic for such creative use of visuals! Another thing that helped reinforce the eerie, otherworldly feel of the film was the fact that you don’t see any other people or moving vehicles at all; the streets are completely deserted, and there is no movement anywhere (except far in the background of one scene).
One problem I noticed was toward the end of the film. During the scene on top of the cliff, the camera shakes noticeably right before it zooms back to a wide shot. This is made more obvious due to the fact that the camerawork in the rest of the film was very solid. I don’t know if a tripod was used or not, but as a rule, I recommend that filmmakers always use a good, solid tripod if they want their shots to look good and solid. If the tripod you’re using is too light and wobbles or shifts easily, you can stabilize it by putting a few sandbags around the feet. (Some tripods also have an upside-down hook underneath the base plate where you can hang some weight to stabilize the tripod.)
Use of Audio
The audio in the film was very interesting. As stated above, there is no dialogue, so the main audio is the music that plays throughout the film. There are several different pieces of music that are played, and while none of the music has words, most of the pieces are more in the classical genre. This goes well with the black-and-white palette and the European, Gothic-looking locations. I was pleasantly surprised to notice just how well the music fit the theme and actions in the different scenes.
|
|
|
|
