This started out as a facebook status that turned into a ramble session about a movie I watch at the UVU Cinema Club.
Warning: Long winded post about an "artsy" movie we watched in a college cinema club.
Last night at the UVU Cinema Club we watched a film by Richard Dutcher. It is a movie about a person falling away from the ideals of his youth. The premise of the story was engaging and thought provoking.
The Eric Boyle is a videographer by day and an aspiring movie writer by night. In one particular scene the would be writer is told that movies needs to push the boundaries if they are to succeed. If someone shows blood, you need to show bone. If someone else shows bone you have to show marrow.
The movie is extremely violent something I personally don’t have a problem with. I give the movie a thumbs down because the director both missed and hit an important subject on the head.
When I was working for a software company there were a couple foam ball floating around. I would be working along and out of nowhere I would be hit by one of these balls. It didn’t hurt at most it was annoying and distracting. This is when I came up with the Nerf Principle. It isn’t the act of violence that causes tension. It is the build up to the act that causes the stress. The actual act of violence is a release of tension. If I threw the foam ball at my co-worker they would laugh and go on their merry way. On the other hand, if I held the ball as if I was about to throw it. They would tense up and the stress involved would show on their face. Remember that getting hit by one of these balls did not hurt in the slightest so why would they tense up. It is the build up, the knowledge that they had no control of the situation.
What does this have to do with Falling? As I said before the movie is violent. There are scene of unfiltered graphic violence. Even with the final fight scene and the stabbing scene that impacted the audience the most are not the scene of expressed violence but of implied or withheld violence.
During the movie Eric’s wife is auditioning for a movie. She is required to strip as part of the audition because the movie she will be portraying has a couple nude scene. As the process proceeds she is required to take off more clothing. The violence does not come in the form of fist or bulleting but the leering eyes of the producer and director and the emotionless of the only other female in the room, the camerawoman. The camera work is done in a manner that you never actually she any nudity and it is that absence that causes this scene to be one of the more disturbing scenes in the movie. If the director had shown the nudity the audience would have had an emotional release.
Human tend to want to help those in need. By holding back the pinnacle act of violence those experiencing the event cannot resolve the turmoil they are witnessing. Because cinema is a one way experience the person watching a movie cannot reach into the screen and help, they are force to endure the action until they resolve.
I think I have rambled on for long enough (actually too long) until next time this has been RambleTheater is Archeious.
