Earrings (2012)

Guy: "You want everyone to blame you, 'coz it gives you a reason to blame yourself"

By Alex Withrow
With Catherine Warner

I read about Earrings on Sati's Cinematic Corner. I loved the snapshots that were displayed there and when I saw that this movie could be watched online (here), I decided to give it a shot.

The film follows a young nurse who lives alone. Through items and behaviors mostly, we learn about her, her solitude and about her bad habits.

There seems to be a great complicity between the director and the main actress as most of the film revolves around that tenuous link between a nagging conscience, the look of an outsider, both represented by this constantly close up camera and the loneliness and mental state of the main character. I found it to give such an intimate feel to the movie. The downward spiral is omnipresent, in a way it deals with both grief and freedom.

The freedom from memories can be metaphorically represented by the house the girl lives in as it holds all the memories fueling her grief, while the outdoors scenes depict her in a much more free way. Both these aspects, as well as the directorial work, reminded me of Absentia (2011). I was annoyed by some of the directorial choices, for example the extensive use of fade to black scenes and the out of focus blurriness, but it was compensated by the interesting fish-eye camera around the house but most importantly by the surrounding work around the main character, giving more depth to both the downward spiral and the search for freedom.

The music and sounds were very brief, but the music added a lot to the movie. All in all, the plot remains quite simple but it is not the plot that is most important, as the journey through it is actually far more interesting. I can only say that I'd be looking forward to a full length feature which would allow for deeper exploration of the character and dialogues.

I liked: Constant close contact with the young actress. Downward spiral. Bare and stripped from the superfluous.

I disliked: Lot of blurriness. Not sure the dialogue scene was required, it could have been preferable to keep giving clues through shots to keep a better flow.

69/100
A promising short movie which shows the sometimes venomous, sometimes emotional attachment we give objects, hence the title.