When I was browsing the web for more experimental films to feed my brain on after watching Scorpio Rising, I stumbled across a director named Frans Zwartjes. I am absolutely fascinated by his films, most of which are accessible on Youtube. As it is very much on the topic of experimental films this week, I thought I would share. Living (1971) by Zwartjes is one of the most impactful short experimental films I have seen so far. The general aura conveyed throughout, was something different from the other short experimental films I have seen, probably because of how uncanny and personal it felt.
The first thing you notice going into the film is that everything is filmed as a vlog on some kind of camera that can be held by Zwartjes who acts as the lead in the film as himself. While this doesn’t necessarily break the fourth wall since Zwartjes never makes direct eye contact with us (the camera), it is still very unconventional in the sense that we are very aware that what we are seeing is a video recorded by a camera. The film-making itself is made very obvious to us; we are very aware of its film-ness. Being aware of filmmaking is a common characteristic amongst experimental films, however I believe that the way Zwartjes does it as a vlog style makes the film-ness more personal to the viewers. Vlogging is something that is familiar to most of us; something we see often in non-cinematic media.
One reason why I think Zwartjes makes this decision is because of the overall message of this film, to make a statement about the odds of middle class life. The film is a message of real life, it is filmed in a house, something we are also fairly familiar with; however the fact that it is empty adds to the experimental element. When we think of vlogging we often associate it with real life (like in a documentary), the theme Zwartes wishes to establish.
Throughout the film, in its movement around a singular empty room in the house, Zwartjes tries to criticize at the fact that life is often filled with unopened doors, unfulfilled dreams, and aimless meandering (although this is a quite pessimistic interpretation, and there are many other possible meanings within the film, these are just the ones I picked out when I watched the first time.): Zwartjes’ vlogs show him and his wife walking aimlessly about the empty room, both seemingly to look around at everything around them (except for each other) just to be met with white empty walls (this can be synonymous to looking for meaning in life? yet life has no meaning: why the walls are white and empty). We see the couple make plans to fill the room with furniture and color, yet that never transpires, and the plans lay unfinished on the floor. Doors open and close, showing color on the other side yet neither of the couple successfully goes to the other side, preferring to stay in the bleak empty room. There is no real narrative storytelling in this film, the information and themes relayed to us purely through the overall film images themselves and how they interact with one another.
MORE FRANZ ZWARTJES:
Anamnevis (1969): https://youtu.be/tZOWiUiOZRU?si=C2209MX5ZPTo9bYt
Spectator (1970):https://youtu.be/qaAMjoyvOQ8?si=-anhBgiUQnyv6rcY