Gestalt: Research

Nocturne: Cinema 16

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081245/plotsummary
Nocturne is about a woman who is sensitive to the light. At the beginning of the film we see a silouette against a window and we don't hear anything, a man then crashes through the window in a suit of some kind. She shields her eyes from the glass and then it cuts to a very dark shot. We can see odd colours and a flicker of white as the light shows her in a nightgown. After a montage of shots where she is on the floor and hiding and then eventually we hear her on the phone to a friend. She is talking about leaving and how she doesnt think she can do it, and her friend is desperately trying to convince her otherwise. At the end of the film we see her properly for the first time in the very early morning light with geese flying overhead.

When I look at the picture it is very dark and it is hard to make out what most of the objects are. I think that this represents how she feels in not being able to go into the light so only seeing the outline or the highlights of the objects around her. There is a really good shot that looks a little bit like CCTV when she is on the floor and there are tissues flying over her, it has a bit of a "someone is watching you" feel to it. Although I think it works I don't particularly like this as it is hard to connect with what is going on and also because it is in French the subtitles can distract our vision from what is going on. We either miss what they are saying and it doesn't make sense or we miss what is happening in the shot.There are 3 characters in the film and only one in the shot and that is the girl, the other two are on the other end of the phone call. There is also a bird in the room, however it is dead, I feel this is either a symbol of death and neglect or fear. The girl is fearful of the light and it looks as if she has been locking herself away so neglecting the world outside of the four walls. The room is a mess from what we can see, she is feeling arrouund for stuff, knocking things over as if she is dizzy or loseing control, maybe going a little bit insane because she is so alone and scared.
I think that the underlying theme of the film is fear and pain, because she is on the phone saying that she doesnt want to leave and she cant go into the light while her friends are there convincing her otherwise. The darkness and the angle the camera is at shows how scared she is because she looks small and not easily seen. Another possible theme is dreams... the beginning of the film shows a man that smashes through the window so maybe that was a dream/nightmare and that is what scared her of the light and of leaving, maybe it is something that has happened and now given her a reccuring nightmare. Either way it is connected to her being afraid and it has kept her awake and also made her paranoid.
When the man comes crashing into the building it is a loud crash, the build up to that is slow and quiet to make the entrance seem more impressive. Through the rest of the film is just ambience of the room and then the phone call which is whispers and mumbling tones. I think that it really worked because hearing the hurt in her voice and not having anything else to distract her. At the end of the film when the birds fly over we hear the wind and the noise of the birds
Overall I thought the film was good, but it isnt really something I would watch. When I watched it I was confused at what was going on but when we discussed it as a group I started to understand the logic and the theme, why is it dark, all the things on the floor and the sounds.