In a nutshell this romantic thriller is about an
auction house director (Virgil Oldman
played by Rush) who becomes obsessed with an heiress (Claire) who is selling a
large art and antiques collection, but refuses to be seen. But Virgil is an
impatient and callous man, suffering from rhypophobia. His antisocial behaviour
and general disregard of others contrasts a story about a man who learns to
reconnect with people through the unseen woman.
The film’s interior stylisations reflect the internal
psychology of Virgil. The scenes are rich with colour and subject and are filmed
with a wide angle lens, setting Virgil as a smaller figure in the middle of
large open spaces. This kinda asserts his emotional distance and failure to
understand people, women in particular.
As he grows mentally and physically closer to Claire
and the wall that hides her, the framing is purposefully tighter to assert
their union of agoraphobic tendencies. We are intrigued by what we're not
seeing off camera as much as Virgil's actions. This mystery is enhanced by
story beats that dissolve into intense peaks of voyeurism.
The manipulation that occurs between characters reflects Virgil’s
artificiality of his life. Virgil is often consulted in the authentication of
objects he is to auction and one of the key lines in the film is "there is
always something authentic concealed in every forgery".
Deception becomes the concluding theme, along with physical and mental
disorientation. The idea is that as Virgil loses his bearings on time and space
we do too so that we experience indistinguishable emotions about the real and
fake.
No comments:
Post a Comment