Hole in the Ground
October 26th 2008 23:07
Filmmaking has an innate sense of perversity, I think, which comes from the fact that the filmmaker has become a voyeur, someone intruding on an external story for the sole purpose of recording it.
Some films challenge this idea, notably horror films like "The Blair Witch Project" and George A. Romero's latest, "The Diary of the Dead", which all use the premise enacted by Hitchcock in "Rear Window", but, in general, the filmmaker takes an unemotional stance as things unfold before them.
Perth filmmaker Kenta McGrath's 40 minute film, "Hole in the Ground", takes this idea to a sick conclusion, portraying a young filmmaker, Zack, who seems disconnected and lost among the bright open spaces in Perth, choosing, instead, to wander at night, looking through the lens of his camera.
As "Hole in the Ground" progresses, though, Zack seems to feel giddy at his invulnerability when looking through the camera, wandering at night, examining people, going unnoticed.
It's a sharp lesson, though, as Zack finds out, with the bludgeoning speed of a fist, that observation is not possible without affecting the thing that you observe. It's a lesson that physics teaches us in the form of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one that we should be able to ignore at our macroscopic level, but still seems to ring true.
"Hole in the Ground" contrasts jerky handheld footage with beautiful staged scenes, giving the audience both, but blurring the line between cinéma vérité and finely crafted cinematography. Perth, forgotten by most east coast Australians, becomes beautifully shot in this film, capturing the beauty of the city, but also of small moments: the spontaneous choreography of pedestrians walking past a tunnel, or a beach illuminated at night.
McGrath has achieved something sublime in this film, making the most of a low budget and unprofessional actors. My criticism of "Hole in the Ground" is that it suffers from the same malady as many films made by young filmmakers - the gravity of the script seems overly dramatic and an inappropriate setting for young adults. Zack seems to be withdrawn and contemplative, but I didn't relate or sympathize with him, and the reactions of other characters in the film seem unnatural.
Additionally, the film feels more like an exercise in filmmaking, the script being a framework for staging these fantastic shots and angles around Perth. While some scenes are wonderfully crafted, I grew impatient, as they did not seem to add more to the film.
Still, watching independent film can breath minty exuberance into a film critic's eyes, as it's always refreshing to see the final product of raw passion, like seeing sugar in it's raw form, a big vat of black, sticky molasses.
I say: While it feels aimless to begin with, "Hole in the Ground" builds up to a boiling point and hits you in the face.
See it for: Cody Fern, who plays Zack, is uniformly excellent, a young actor that manages the dire talent of not overacting.
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