Maybe it is just because I like bizarre, but I really did like The Mirror. It had some of the most beautiful shots that we have seen this term. For me, there is some strange pull to when a movie uses black and white, but has access to color. Some of my favorite scenes from the movie were the ones that were in black and white. The first dream sequence with the water, followed by the woman's trip to work, were beautifully shot pieces. At first I thought that the sequence where the woman goes to work was a dream at first, because when the one woman dissappears to go find her boss, she goes through the door, then appears right back with the boss, instantly. The reason I think that this is a dream because we don't remember time lapse in our dreams, just the events that occur.
Speaking of that woman, she was an absolutely fascinating character for me to watch. It seems that she is non-aging, but that is just because the man just sees his mother and his ex-wife as the same person, for some reason. It makes it hard to tell who is who at times, and I would normally be upset by this trickery, but the way it is explained in the film is that because they act the same way, they can be portrayed the same way. I hate her bi-polar coworker. My favorite single shot involved her. It had her (in the present) moving back and forth between brightness and darkness, and this shot of her going from light to dark just helped for some reason to enhance her as a character for me.
And that episode in the printing factory is perhaps shot in black-and-white because the narrator is experiencing an "imaginary memory" perhaps? Or perhaps the episode is based on hearsay--things he had heard his mother talk about in childhood?
ReplyDeleteI only wonder this because while most of the dream sequences (including the one you refer to with the water and the rising hair that hides her head) are shot in black in white--it ends up that most of the narrator's memories are in vivid color.
We'll talk more about the way memories are conveyed in this film tomorrow.
I totally agree, that this film was very fascinating to watch. I had to be very open-minded when watching all through out. The black and white/color shift of scenes were my favorite as well. The visuals of the different scenaries were so beautiful to me.
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