Existing Films That Have Shaped My Ideas

At the start of this year my knowledge of Art House films was reasonable small.  I knew that I wanted to create a short art house film as I was keen to push myself to create something that would appeal to an intelligent and mature target audience.

To develop my knowledge of art house films I looked at the Guardian List of the top 25 Art House Films.  I then watched a number of the films that were discussed. Some of these films have been really useful when working on this project as I have wanted to recreated certain emotions that were so effective portrayed.

CITIZEN KANE

I was very impressed by the way regret is presented in Citizen Kane. I wanted my protagonist to show a similar quite, sense of regret. I wanted her sadness to be clear but I did not want her heartbreak to look over the top. I feel this film did a great job at showing strong emotions without ever becoming cliché or melodramatic. 

I also like the fact the film was based around a mystery. I have tried to create a similar sense of mystery in my last shots as it is unclear if the boyfriend dies or not. With the references to suicide also being ambigious to make the theme comical.

L’ANTALANTE

I really dislike most depictions of love that are common in blockbuster films and I loved how in this film it showed love as being problematic.  I feel this film showed that love and hate and anger are all a part of most relationships which inspired me to film the 360 degree shot of the characters arguing. I felt this clearly showed that the relationship between the characters was filled with problems and a lot of negative feelings. I wanted the audience to film the fights were on going like the circular motion of the camera.

MULHOLLAND DRIVE

This film was a lot more surreal than I ever intended my film to be, but it encouraged me to think about representation and presenting narrative in a non traditional way. This degree of surrealism inspired me to be confident in my creativity, which may be limited in blockbuster films. This is what encouraged me to use the candle as a motif and include flashbacks in my film. I feel this has been a successful but non patronising way of getting the audience to understand how the love between the two characters was both powerful and fragile.