Part 1: Brief Reference
| What did you like about the film? I liked that the use of still images instead of live shots made the storyline and key moments stand out I liked the lighting being used and the style of photos all having an eerie feel to themThe storyline kept me engaged the whole time despite there only being images | What didn’t you like? I didn’t enjoy the music because I think it was too loud and distracting from the images instead of enhancing the images At times it was quite boring because some sets of images being presented were very similar The images were kept on the screen for quite a long time which made me lose interest at some points |
| What ideas could you use? Narrative or style? I think the use and choice of music used in the futuristic setting fit and enhanced the images nicely therefore dialogue between the characters wasn’t really needed | What ideas won’t you use? Why? I wouldn’t use still images because I think at some points that made the overall film slow and a bit boring and I would maybe have a much upper beat music |
Part 2: In-Depth Study – Narrative
| Narrative Feature | Example | Own example |
| Establishing protagonist | Introduced only in narration – first in third person as “a man marked by an image”; then in first person -memory of incident at the airport. We don’t see him until the first experiment is shown. This shows how core the act of remembering is to his identity – indeed we find out very little about him (he remains nameless) apart from his ‘remembering’ (even when he is travelling in time). | Even though the man is the protagonist in the film as it is all about his experiences, the opening shot is of a woman therefore making the audience think about her overall involvement and importance in the film. Having her be the first person we see makes the viewer know she will play a significant role in the story and plot. |
| Establishing other characters | The Woman is the first person we see (“the only image to survive the war”) – and she is defined only by the fact the narrator remembers her. Feminist critics may comment on the fact she barely seems to exist outside the experiences of the narrator and her growing belief in him. | The group of doctors looking men experimenting on the protagonist were almost always shot from high angels implying their importance within the story. They were also speaking English therefore making it feel like maybe this whole story occurred during WW2 when the germens were in power and notoriously known for doing tests on humans during that time. |
| Establishing location (time and place) | We are told immediately that the location is Paris. The bombed out wreckage of the city (real WW2 images) don’t immediately establish that this is the future until the narrator mentions radiation. The underground location beneath the Palais de Chaillot is shown by intercut images of broken cherubs and other sculptures. | There is an obvious contrast between the images shown when presenting the past compared to the future therefore making it easy for the audience to follow along and understand what is happening and when. For example, the images showed to represent the past are lit brightly while the ones representing the past are shot with heavy shadows and eerie looking sets correlating to the feelings of the characters and their lives during those times. |
| Creating Enigmas | The image the narrator obsesses over is the central enigma: who is the man he witnesses dying? How does he die? Who is the woman? The still images and voiceover powerfully evoke the nature of memory. | What other questions are posed throughout the narrative? This makes the reader wonder whether or not we can actually use time in order to stop certain events but also making it confusing whether or not the people in his universe are also phased by his actions. |
| Narrative binary oppositions | The ‘Living Present’ vs Past/Future. As the film progresses, what constitutes the ‘present’ (for the protagonist) seems to shift from his dystopian subterranean society to the ‘past’ of pre-apocalypse Paris. This is conveyed by the faster rhythm of the montage and the sequence (18:00-18:49) where the images almost become like traditional cinema. | Even though the doctors practicing the experiments on the protagonist are primarily painted as heroes for their efforts to help humanity after the nuclear war, they seem to be against humanity as the film goes on due to their eerie atmosphere but also their whispering implying their secretive nature. |
| Crisis | Is it the first experiment? The moment the man spots the woman from the airport? Or is it when the future society offers him the chance to escape to the future? | What do you think is the crisis point? How does this affect the rest of the narrative? I think the main crisis was when the doctors practiced their first experiment on the man as that was the reason he could time travel therefore being the reason there was a man to shoot at the end which was the main question the audience would be asking themselves. (who was the man he witnessed dying?) |
| Resolution | The narrative is closed – but it is also in a loop: the narrator is both the dying man and the child watching the scene. This ‘time paradox’ has inspired films as diverse as The Terminator and Looper (as well as 12 Monkeys which is almost a remake). | What do you think about the end? Is it closed – or endlessly circular? Even though we get the answer for the main question at the beginning of the film (who the man getting shot was) however the ending of the film seems to be circular because we relies he was the man who died but that could have only happened if he saw himself get shot and the woman when he was young. |
Part 3: Meaning and Effect
| What did you think was the intention of the filmmaker(s)? Intellectual message? Emotional response? Everyone is trapped in their time – they cannot escape it, even through memory. It is also about concept of photography and cinema itself, trying to ‘freeze’ time with images despite time always being in motion. | How was this achieved? The use of photomontage separates each frame of the story into a frozen image – even though these are joined together using traditional narrative film techniques such as voiceover, dissolves, fades and music. As the man begins to ‘live’ more and more in the ‘past’ with his lover, the space between these frames speeds up to resemble ‘motion picture’ speed at one point. The stuffed animals in the museum are also ‘frozen’ in a single moment. |
| Aesthetic binary oppositions The use of still photo images are combined with traditional narrative cinematic techniques that bring them ‘to life’… until the moment around 18:00 when they flow together. | Effect of these oppositions? Shows the intensity of emotion the narrator feels with his lover: like he is finally ‘living’ in moving time rather than a series of frozen, separated moments. |
Inspirations – what ideas did this film give you for your own short film?
| Establishing characters, setting, plot, theme making my characters easy to understand and recognize making the plot of my short film develop quickly showing what is happening is just as effective and telling what is happening | Creating enigmas the audience knows that the woman showed at the very beginning of he film is going to have an important presence and storyline attached to her because she is the first person we see |
| Narrative structure (non-/linear? Open/ closed ending?) having a non-linear ending can be very confusing for the audience up to the very end when we find out the plot, this can cause people to lose interest in your film before the end therefore before the plot even happens | Striking use of technical features even though the use of still images emphasizes key moments within the film, I will personally not be using them because I think that is rather boring compared to action shot |