By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sarah Polley
Starring: Julian Richings | Kristen Thomson | Matthew Ferguson
Country: canada
Year: 2002
Running time: 38
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0291257
Michael says: “I wanted to just say a few words about Sarah’s short film, I SHOUT LOVE. I felt it was quite an accomplished, entertaining, and effective effort from a novice director. Sarah did a terrific job merging the very personal story of a painful break-up to the political strife plaguing Quebec at the time. I think Sarah’s strength lay in her writing for this piece, but she also had a remarkably good eye and kept the film visually interesting.
“She’s certainly a filmmaker with a lot of talent, and a lot of promise.” 4 cats
Laura says in response to Michael: “Don’t forget the performances, particularly the lead actress – she was terrific! Strong use of music. I also liked the fact that before the title even came up on the black screen we hear the words ‘Put the camera down!’ Too bad we didn’t get this one as a short film submission….
Diane says in response to Laura: “Yes, Kristen Thomson was great, and I appreciated seeing an athletic big-boned female body on screen. (Polley said she does primarily stage work; I’d like to see her in more films.)
“Polley packed two hours worth of emotion and character development into 38 minutes. As one member of the audience said, she did a great job of universalizing the specific. I had to do detach myself halfway through, otherwise I would have been sobbing, which I thought might have distracted the other viewers.”
Emily says in response to Diane: “I sobbed painfully through the whole thing, it was all that wine and the universality of it all!”
Bob says: “I was very impressed. Of course, I came up with a few questions and comments after the whole thing was over. I don’t suppose we could forward these on to Ms Polley…
“She talked about how she’d thought a lot about back story while she was both writing and casting the film, and explained how Bobby originally saw Tessa as different and exciting, and later on came to think of her as immature, and saw leaving her as sort of an act of his own maturation. That much made perfect sense to me. But I have to wonder what the character of Tessa ever saw in Bobby, apart from the passionate way he watched the Leafs. I got the feeling that Tessa’s friends never liked Bobby, probably calling him something like ‘Normal Boy.’
“I also wanted to comment on what I thought was a really beautiful cut early on in the film: the whole thing is from the video camera’s POV. In the first shot, we see Bobby reach down and pick up the camera from the parking lot, causing the image to tilt, then that cuts to Bobby in Tessa’s apartment, with the camera being carried by Tessa while she skates around the room. I thought it was just beautiful, fluid and just the tiniest bit jarring. Loved it. Polley had mentioned that she’d been making an effort to think more visually, and I don’t know how involved she was in the editing of the piece, but if that cut was her idea, she’s definitely on the right track.”