Everybody wants to feel like they’re flying every so often, don’t they?Īnother perfect shot encapsulating everything you need to know about Sweetie, and this time, her father. There’s a lot of shots like this in cinema, but I always love it because it’s such a universal feeling. Jon Darling plays the father of Kay and Sweetie, a conflicted man who’s trying to hold on to his family as best he can. It reminds you that Sweetie is stuck somewhere between being a child and being an adult. I love this shot because it’s just such a great way to show people impatiently waiting to go somewhere.Ī great shot of desperation. It’s a great exploration of family dynamics, subversive, but never uncaring. They’ve each reached a different place in life in regards to their relationship with her. Each member of the family – Kay, her mother and her father – have different ideas about what they should do with Sweetie. This aspect of the film is really hard-hitting. Genevieve Lemon plays the titular Sweetie, Kay’s black sheep sister who has a low I.Q., border-line special needs, who is just able to live on her own, but not really. There’s nothing erotic about this depiction of intimacy. This is so great because we have two naked people about to have sex, who are just casual and naked. I am a big fan of dick shots in movies, as is Jane Campion, who has another great one in The Piano. Kay is in a daze because of her home life and these bitches from work who don’t like her at all (partially for good reason) mock her any chance they get. It’s moments like this you remember that Campion started out as a fine artist. It also brings us a pretty trippy, over-exposed dream that probably says more about the Kay character than I was able to decipher. This results in one of the most hilarious non-confrontational verbal fights I’ve ever seen. Kay’s boyfriend convinces her to try meditation when their relationship becomes strained. It tells you so much about the characters and what kind of people they are and having the clothing hang in front of mostly-closed drapes adds a little salacious feel to the shot. Later Kay winds up with a boyfriend (I don’t want to spoil how that happens, but it’s bold and unforgettable) and their first sexual encounter is as awkward as you would expect. Kay very isolated from her co-workers and doesn’t appear to have many friends (except a fortuneteller) at the beginning of the film and this shot really tells you all you need to know. Thankfully, Campion has kept a good mix of these kind of shots throughout her career. I love the composition of this shot. One thing I love about feature debuts is that directors while still do these amazing self-conscious, “arty” for lack of a better word, shots that often times they will abandon later in their career. I don’t know how she does it, but it’s astonishing. Actress Karen Colston is able to show so much emotion while simultaneously looking dazed the whole time. We then get a series of close-up to Kay’s face. She’s also the narrator of the film (though the narration is mostly at the beginning and the end). The first shot we see of our protagonist Kay in Sweeties is of her legs. It won the short film Palm d’Or at the Cannes film festival, making Campion the first woman to win that award. Sweetie is really similar it tone to Campion’s 1982 short film Peel, which was an exploration of siblings and family. That said, I don’t really want to spoil the twists and turns too much, so mostly I’m going to focus this week on some arresting shots that have haunted me for the last few weeks. Shout out to cinematographer Sally Bongers for capturing Campion’s unique vision! It’s also really fucking bittersweet and strange. It is Jane Campion’s feature film debut and it is fucking gorgeously shot. I saw this for the first time a few weeks back.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |