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The emotional impact that this short animated film delivered at our screening was rather unprecedented and I think worth exploring. So explore it. Try to break down the elements of your response and identify how and why it added up to the response you had. As you do so, consider the ways the film generated the conditions for your response; try to go beyond simply storyline and characters to include such things as how images were presented, how soundtrack was used, how dialogue was constructed. Etc.
At some point while watching the film, I became so engrossed as if I were reading a book; I felt as if someone were personally telling me a story, an anecdote, even. I became so emotionally invested in the wellbeing of each character and was literally on the edge of my seat for the last half of the film. The soundtrack was incredible, and when it first played in the opening scene, the lovely and haunting opera singer, a sinister feeling of dread, mystery, and almost peacefulness was created. You had to wonder why this opera music was playing, and especially considering the setting–out in space. It made the audience curious, and left an air of unpredictability throughout the movie because of its haunting and chilling aura. The soundtrack was able to evoke different emotions from the audience at specific scenes. For instance, like I mentioned, in the opening scenes, the opera music created a sense of mystery, curiosity, and a chilling dread. We didn’t know what was to soon occur. But later, the opera music played at the very end, the audience is able to feel Eva’s loss and sadness, her unwillingness to relinquish her hold on the past and to move forward. We feel her sorrow and every emotion that pours from her soul and into her voice. I think the soundtrack was truly elemental in provoking the reaction that I had after finishing the film. We were left with the Eva’s chilling opera, and I felt like I was experiencing all of her emotions and tribulations through the music. It is almost frightening to realize how impactful and essential a soundtrack can become to a film; the music in this film is what tied together the story, and allowed the audience to gain a better understanding or new interpretation of what the film might be trying to say
I completely agree about the soundtrack. It’s exquisite and communicates the mood brilliantly. Beautiful and indeed sinister and full of dread.
What impressed me the most in this movie was the use of montage: the alternating scenes between characters and incidences. For example, near the end of the movie, the images quickly alternate between the struggle of Miguel and Heinz, and the hardship experienced by the crews in the spaceship. Moreover, in the scene which Heinz is fighting with his past memories, the image changes to show Heinz’s regret toward his daughter’s death and his determination to escape from the trap of memories. The use of montage adds the element of “stream of consciousness” to the movie, in order to create the sense of chaos and disorder, which exact reflects the internal struggle of different characters.
The movie also utilizes the contrast of brightness and darkness to strike the audience. As Miguel arrives at the broken piano in the heart of the “magnetic rose,” in his vision the piano is surrounded by light, which forms sheer contrast with dark, shattered metal vestige. Such contrast of brightness and darkness is a way to reflect the great difference of Miguel’s imagined reality and the real circumstance he’s in. The contrasts visually lead the audience to think about the gap between reality and illusions, and how easily they can be confused.
Generally, these visual techniques help better reveal the internal struggle of characters, and illustrate the themes of this movie in a more straightforward way.I feel like a big part of my emotional reaction was my attachment to the characters and, like niah said, the soundtrack. From the very beginning, suspense was built from no one knowing who sent the distress signal and why. This sense of danger really jumpstarts our concern for the characters, and when we see the scene created for Heinz with his family, I hoped for his safety for his daughter’s sake. The music intensifies these feelings, as the classical nature adds a lot of drama to the situations.
The other part that caused the film to toy with my emotions was the mix of reality and illusion. Even though the illusions were memories of things that had actually happened, a part of me was always wondering if what was happening was real or not. So when we were shown the memory of Emily falling, the possibility (no matter how slight) that this it didn’t actually happen let me “pretend” along with Heinz that it didn’t. However my naive hopes were crushed when Heinz finally accepted reality, and when Eva replayed the scene, this time having Heinz in a position to save Emily, it hit me even harder when she just fell through his arms. It solidified the truth that the past cannot be changed, a problem both Heinz and Eva struggle with as they are tempted to stay living in old memories, not facing reality. Watching Heinz overcome this was painful, and I hurt with him.
I think one particular technique the director use is through the sharp contrast of monochromatic color at the scene where Heinz is holding Emily’s dead body’s hologram – a part of his memory. Particularly from the light, a common motif for salvation and hope, radiating back from the lady’s back. It cast a long, dark shadow, much bigger than the two humans at the opposite angles of the rectangular frame. This opposition makes the struggle between real facts and ideal fantasy. Which the lady chose the latter, who lives in perpetual memory as a computer program with her beloved husband. On the other hand, Heinz may be tempted, but still try to struggle with the influence of the past, and break from the dark shadowy path to the illuminated house.
In my opinion, the emotional reaction brought out by this movie wasn’t even just through the music. It was more about the relatability of the characters and themes. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty sure that listening to a haunting opera voice while watching people tour an abandoned terrifying space station plays on some instinctual fear of us as humans to never want to be alone or, well, confronted by ghosts in a foreign place. More importantly, the hyperrealistic animation style really did make the characters much more engaging. Watching a random clearly fantastical anime character is so much different from watching an actual human in such a weird place; the animation was so life-like that it almost felt like a live-action film. Most of us can clearly relate to a strong parental figure who we know would do anything for us, and watching a man go through hell just to make it back home is both gut-wrenching and heart-warming. And watching him basically lose it all, with the “simulated” death of his daughter really is a huge mental weight.
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