Straight for the Heart
Lea Pool
The characters: Pierre (a photo journalist), David (working in an acquarian),
Sarah (a celloist), Quentin (a window cleaner)
The title: corps perdu -- 'with lost body'; impetuously;
in desperation.
I. The menage-a-trois: Pierre--David -- Sarah: Why
do Sarah and David leave Pierre? How does Pierre respond to it?
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Reasons for the breakup
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Sarah and David: cannot say goodbye;
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Sarah: does it for her life.
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David: without planning, it just happens under Pierre's eyes. Trio
turns to duet.
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the mode of their relationship: Pierre in the center, or put them in the
center. Pierre being the controlling one. (clips 1, 2,
)
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"Deep down what you escape is the pain of being alone."
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Pierre's responses:
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cannot take it; obsessed,
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search for reasons; re-experience the pain of being rejected. (clips: 4/5;
20/21)
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fixation -> sublimation: start to take photos of them as well as the city.
II. Pierre as a photo journalist: What is his
style of photography? In Nicaragua and then back in Montreal?
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Pierre's style: objective/detached or subjective/involved?
From the most objective/detached to the most subjective/involved.
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Nicaragua --surprised to find himself called "assissino" (assasin?)
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Back home: He associates his own personal experience in Nicaragua, back
home with the city images.
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"The Corroding City": fragmentary images of emptiness, decay, superficiality,
(clips: 7; 13; )
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images of Sarah and David: possessing them, seeing them leave, visualizing
their responses
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image of a fragmented and complaining self (clip 14)
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recurrent images: reveal his fears and desires (clips: 8; 12; 17; 25)
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the meaning of photography:
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the banquet guests -- photography: "giving structure to life"; "collecting
life is easier than understanding it"
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Pierre: "unable to care for people, we care for things."
III. From obsession to liberation: How does Pierre
liberate himself?
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After knowing Quentin
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not throught Quentin: still cannot forgets about Sarah and David; Quentin
as their messenger (Clip 18)
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not through his love for the mother.
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gets pleasures in viewing the city from above, or looking at the airplane
(clips 19, 23, 24)
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healing process is not straightforward: from liberation to obsession, and
then to further liberation
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his photo work: clip 24
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the final moment of connection and liberation clips possessing them;
visualizing their responses (27, 28)
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Is he liberated from his obsession with Sarah
and David, or from his egotism?
Clips
1. the three celebrating the 10 years' anniversary
2. the two in the bathroom, dragging P in
3. somebody cannot be consoled --> running
4. getting an answer from Sarah
5. from David
6. Nicaragua images--the mother
7. his habit of looking: fragmenting + associating
8. corroding image --tunnel vision
9. recurrent image: the shooting
10 mother 1
11. mother 2
12. recurrent image: airplane
13. photo 1: rejection, emptiness
14, photo 2: self
15, photo 3: banquet guest; photo 4: garbage -- we care for things
16.self-reflection, the old woman
17. railway, the images and sounds in Nicaragua
18. Quentin --represent the other two
19. Liberation 1: Quentin's help
20. re-experience love and rejection: Sarah
21. re-experience love and rejection: David
22. Liberation 2: city to airplane
23. Liberation 3: mother to airplane
24. his photo work: destruction to liberation
25. recurrent images: tunnel
26. Liberatino 4: self-reflections --the child in me
27. Liberation 5: self-affirmatin; the child = that in Nicaragua
28. Liberation 6: departure
