One of the first techniques I noticed that Tarr used was long shots with the camera moving subtly constantly. When the focus shifted to another subject, the camera moved to that subject, instead of cutting to it. Though I'm not certain because I did not time it, it seemed that nearly half the film was the woman and man having a discussion. Most of the movie took place in their cramped apartment. In one of the earliest scenes we understand through dialogue that it is their 10th anniversary. Robi, the husband (we know his name because his wife uses it, but I do not think that the mother's name is ever spoken -a sign of his role in their disconnect and relationships falling apart), bought some beer. The scene starts with a close up of the woman's face, drinking from her glass, and exhibiting various emotions -annoyance, distress, despair. The camera's gentle up and down unsteadiness is reminiscent of documentary cinema. This effect works in these scenes in which the wife explains to her husband why she is desperately unhappy with her routinized life and her suffocating assigned gender role as supreme caretaker. The long lasting close up and the constant reminder that this camera penetrates the characters' inner lives create such strong emotions and a viewer's empathetic understanding. When the focus on the conversation switches to Robi the camera moves to frame his seated body. This movement brings us into their world, their tight, cramped living room and the fault lines of their relationship.
Another prominent cinematic tool in the movie is a semi-repetition of the first argument they have when Robi is packing a suitcase and his wife asks him what he is doing. Aside the point, she asks a lot questions like that (which I find interesting and important in making sense of their positions and characters) -why, where, what does "away" mean, why away, and eventually, she asks what about me? what happens when I get fed up too? So, this scene in the beginning of the movie, after their anniversary breakdown-fight, shows Robi leaving. It must be either a flashback or the future. It is not made clear when in linear time this scene occurs. In it the camera swings softly back between them as he continues to pack and she asks many questions. He walks out of the apartment and still in the same shot since the beginning of this scene, the camera moves so slowly from right to left, making the open crack between door and frame go away, then the door knob too, then the door, as rather magically the camera moves to settle on the woman's face, close up. I wonder how all of the subjects in the scene were shot in focus as the depth of field changes -the transitions, if the focus was adjusted, were imperceptible to me. Then again slowly the camera moves as the woman's face turns so that now she is in profile. That the camera follows the peoples' movements and the focus of the scene shows a kind of understanding caress. This "touch" makes emphasizes the smallness and largeness of this familial drama. Their situation is small because it is on a personal scale, it does not involve nations or universes. This smallness is shown in the close up shots. Nevertheless, these close ups also magnify one woman's grief and confusion so that it is all that we see. Her experience is monumentalized, yet still delicate and intimate. This scene is "repeated" towards the end of the film. The dialogue is a little different and so are the actions, but both scenes end with Robi leaving.
In the several discussion scenes, the husband and wife are only rarely shown together. The camera moves to focus on either one of them. Unlike other conversation scenes I have watched, the camera's point of view here does not mimic that of one of the characters. The camera is itself or someone else or no one. The effect of this cinematographic decision is highlighting their disconnect. Their different attitudes were more complex than one wanting to be together and the other not. In many senses, the man and woman were not "together" already, as illustrated in the woman's list of legitimate, as far as I can tell, grievances from their anniversary.
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