klemen-pust-1

I was quite pleasantly surprised by this little gem of only under five minutes of running time. In it Nils Tavernier was capable to convincingly create a very suggestive atmosphere of almost tactile qualities. His lucid and dynamic use of movie language possibilities was met with the superb performance of, above all, Natacha Regnier and (to somewhat lesser extent-mostly due to the script) also Marion Cotillard. The movie opens with Laurences' (Regnier) dreams (as we learn later) about Valeria (Cotillard). After Laurence awakes she sets about to recreate in real life the experiences from her dreams. Through her journey to meet the beloved Valeria, she leaves behind her previous existence and embraces new horizons (visible in the scene on the boat crossing the "waters"), which is also (in my mind) the meeting point, where dreams, fantasies and realities come together- before the final encounter of both protagonists takes place. In an ironic and almost feminist cameo (the male as the Other) we get a glimpse of Nils Tavernier himself- this is the only time that a male figure appears in the movie. It is only towards the end that the going-on takes a twist, which sheds a new light on the whole story.

This was Spike Jonzes' first short movie, after a series of videos. He obviously wanted to make an original statement without being boring or "theoretical". And he succeeded!

The story is a simple one, you could even say frivolous, but this only adds to the ironic and fresh feel about it. Yet, on the other hand, we could say that one can't get rid of the feeling as if he/she was watching a commercial selling a new line of shoes.

Be that as it may, it is clear that Jonze already in his first motion picture attempt proved the value of his unorthodox, vibrant and intelligent approach to making movies.