Wavelength

I have to say, I was totally blown away by the films this week. Wavelength was particularly interesting. As an experimental film, I was surprised at how much tension it managed to produce, at least within me. During the last 10 minutes, I was totally engrossed in it. Obviously, the soundtrack was key in this; as we begin to make out small details in the photograph, the frequency of the sound waves continues to increase and increase, the pitch rising higher and higher. I really did want to see the photograph, I desired to see it. I was actually afraid that the film would cut off before the photograph encompassed the entire frame. In this way, Wavelength adheres to one of the most central aspects of "conventional" cinema (playing on the audience's desire and expectations), though it shirks almost all others (montage, traditional plotting, non-intrusive soundtrack, etc).

And what does Snow do to our desires, our expectations? Does the film's conclusion have its analogy in the romantic comedy, a string of marriages and perfectly resolved plot, denouement at its finest? Almost. We do in fact get to see the final image, that which we've been craving, but we don't get the singular image that the previous 40 minutes of film has promised us. That is to say, we don't witness the final passage from room to photograph in the same manner that we did the rest of the film because Snow overlays a double of the image, one closer and the other farther away from the photograph. The climax of the film is thus averted.

And yet we dwell on the photograph and this was one of the most interesting parts of the film. There's something odd about the fact that there is a room just outside the confines of the frame. There's something more present in the photograph itself than if I had actually seen a copy of it in reality. Is it that the entire film seems to be saying "Look!"? Perhaps one ascribes to it some sort of importance as a result of the previous desire to simply see it.

At any rate, it's really a remarkable film and there's a lot more to think about that I haven't even touched on here (the playing with color, the angle change towards the end, the photograph itself, etc.)