From an entirely unbiased perspective, the last shot of the two central characters in the film opening is perhaps one of my favourites from the project. Which has nothing to do with the fact that I took it with my own two extremely-experienced-with-camerawork hands obviously.
Esha explained to me the very basics of what I needed to know about her camera’s functions so I could film her and Maroosh sitting on the staircase.
Familiarising myself with Esha's camera for my extremely brief camerawoman era:
This is one of the ideas that developed while we were at the location—because it would truly be a shame to not make use of the pretty staircase and imbue the film opening with another hint of drama and yearning along the way.
The reason why I wanted to talk about this shot in particular is the fact that I couldn’t help but be reminded of Wong Kar Wai and Christopher Doyle while looking at it—in a way, it could be considered a subtle homage to Happy Together and In the Mood For Love in particular.
Wong Kar Wai is known for portraying tender or turbulent moments between lovers in subtle ways, often with scenes that lack any dialogue or heavily feature voiceovers only, and I think this shot aptly captures the spirit of his work in that sense, particularly through the melodramatic voiceover and the fact that the two protagonists are framed by the railings of the stairs which is somewhat reminiscent of Wong’s use of the frame-within-a-frame technique.
This scene can be especially likened to the following shots from a different angle (as well as In the Mood For Love’s various shots featuring staircases):
Perhaps slightly resembling Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood For Love (2000), the narrative of our film opening explores conflicts rooted in reality, forbidden romances, and taboo topics such as LGBTQ+ relationships among other things; these intertextual references to similar texts, thus, add another layer of meaning to the scene for those who may be familiar with the work of Wong Kar Wai.
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