This is about a poll in my bilingual blog at http://celinejulie.blogspot.com
My poll 45 is inspired by LE MONDE VIVANT, a strange film of which its most memorable images are the ones in which we see only the hands of the characters, not the bodies or the faces of the characters.
There is something happening offscreen in every film, because every film can’t show everything which happens around the lives of its characters or every moment of its characters. In most films, the sex scenes happen offscreen, but the porn films do the opposite.
The films I choose here and the ones in which something important happens offscreen, or something which should be shown in most films is not shown in these films.
SOMETHING IMPORTANT HAPPENS OFFSCREEN OR ISN’T SHOWN IN THESE FILMS. WHICH FILMS DO YOU LIKE?
1.AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966, Robert Bresson, France)
2.L’AVVENTURA (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy)
The cause of the disappearance of a character and her fate are never shown or explained.
3.LA BELLE NOISEUSE (1991, Jacques Rivette, France)
The important painting is shown to the characters, but not the audience of this film.
4.BLISSFULLY YOURS (2002, Apichatpong, Weerasethakul, Thailand)
A middle-aged guy is shot dead by some thieves in this film, but it happens offscreen. We only hear its noises. But his corpse turns up in the beginning of TROPICAL MALADY.
5.CASA DE LAVA (1994, Pedro Costa, Portugal)
I think the ending part of this film is so full of ellipses that I don’t understand anything any more.
You can read about CASA DE LAVA in The Evening Class’ blog here:
http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2008/03/pedro-costa-and-others-on-casa-de-lava.html
6.EUROPA 2005 – 27 OCTOBER (2006, Jean-Marie Straub + Daniele Huillet, France)
The death of the two teenagers happened before this film begins.
You can watch this film here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGU06JQ92lc
7.FACE, MASK (หน้า, หน้ากาก) (2008, Eakapojd Djangkijkul, Thailand)
I watched this short film only once, and I don’t understand it at all in the first viewing. I guess there’s a crime happening in this film, but I’m not sure which characters are the criminals and which are the victims. The crime scenes may be omitted from this film, may be not. We may see only what some characters do before and after the crimes.
8.FALLEN (2005, Fred Kelemen, Latvia)
The suicide of one or two characters happens offscreen.
9.5 x 2 (2004, Francois Ozon, France)
We are never sure about the causes of the break-up of this couple.
10.FORGET ME (1994, Noemie Lvovsky, France)
There’s a car accident scene in this film, but we see only the face of the heroine (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), and are not quite sure how the accident looks like.
11.4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (2007, Cristian Mungiu, Romania)
There are two rapes happening offscreen in this film. In fact, I think rape scenes are one of the most frequently omitted scenes in films, with understandable reasons.
12.GHOSTS (2005, Christian Petzold, Germany)
We never see or know if one of the heroines has that birthmark or not.
13.GLORIA (1999, Manuela Viegas,Portugal)
There are ellipses near the end of the film, and many viewers are not sure about what really happens.
14.THE HEADLESS WOMAN (2008, Lucrecia Martel, Argentina)
15.LORNA’S SILENCE (2008, Jean-Pierre Dardenne + Luc Dardenne, Belgium)
The murder of a character happens offscreen.
16.LE MONDE VIVANT (2003, Eugene Green, France)
17.NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007, Joel Coen + Ethan Coen, USA)
The murders of two important characters happen offscreen near the end of the film.
18.A SCENE AT THE SEA (1991, Takeshi Kitano, Japan)
19.SHARA (2003, Naomi Kawase, Japan)
I’m not sure what happens to the brother of the hero.
20.SLOW MOTION (1980, Jean-Luc Godard, France)
Marguerite Duras is offscreen in this film.
You can cast multiple votes
