A fire is ignited from within the cabin, smoke bellows from the seams between the front and rear doors, the paint bubbles, the tires pop.
What's striking is not so much what's happening, but how it's captured. Several times, the camera pans across the body of the burning car. Each time it does so, the image is significantly different. The thing itself is degrading pretty quickly. As well as general panning and circling around the car, there are close ups. They emphasize the changes more directly, more viscerally.
Even so, I as the audience was more fascinated by the process than what it might mean or be trying to say. Why? I think it's because of the sound. With each cut, each angle, the sound shifts slightly. One can tell you're in a different spot somewhere near this burning car. But it's totally irreverent. There are no sentamental undertones, no inkling of a personal connection to this car, the fire pouring out the top or the smoke pluming from the sides. We the audience are just looking. We're watching this car being stripped to the bone by the crackling and popping of fire.
All in all, Burning Car documents with an eye that is interested but not sappy, which is really quite nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment