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So on Friday night I skipped out on the night of free boozing at the pass holder's party to check out "The Back of Her Head" a short directed by Josh Safdie followed by the feature presentation Joe Swanberg's"Hannah Takes the Stairs"I was especially anticipating these screenings. I had heard good things about Hannah takes the stairs from the SXSW coverage and checked out the trailers online. The dialogue seemed quirky, honest and interesting and the shots goggle-infested (right up my alley with the goggles...seriously)
I had been in contact with Joe Swanberg and Josh Safdie before the festival to get some info for their films to showcase for Beanywood members. (You can check out either of their submissions in the articles section of the site)
Josh Safdie's "The Back of Her Head" started off so sadly with projector difficulties, but at the peak of the audience's whimpering, the show was back in business. This film was one of the main highlights in the IFFB showcase for me personally. It was so simple and effortless in it's execution (minus the commondeered crane) but the emotion behind it surpassed many big budget films in my opinion. Josh and his brother and a few other people shot this near the Fenway in a back alley apartment complex. Josh plays the part of a boy who becomes innocently addicted to a life as a voyeur. The seemingly commonplace interactions between this vertical collection of residents present ideas that we all deal with in life. Some of these issues that stood out to me were the constant argument between predicatability and unpredictability in daily life that makes every day, no matter how ordinary an adventure. He knows that if he throws trash out the window of his apartment, he can get a sneak peek of the girl below when she sticks her head out to check out the commotion. But on the other hand, if he hears a noise from below and sticks his head out the window he may get blamed for something that was not his doing. Or get decapitated by a couch for that matter.
This film also deals with something that I feel is becoming a bigger issue in the modern world. The way that we find intimacy in a cold world. This boy finds a real connection with this girl in the way he sees a most candid side of her that nobody else has access to, her unknowingly being observed. On the other hand, their interaction exists almost entirely in his head. Regardless his interaction with her is extremely intense as it is a form of addiction. Some get their voyeuristic fix on the internet scanning pages through the one-way mirror, some still have some connection with the world they can touch, even if only in a fleeting way. -Josh, when you read this...you rock! and the Fenway will miss you
So, after that was the Boston premiere of Joe Swanberg's "Hannah Takes the Stairs" I still cannot understand how this film is improvised for the most part. It is not action packed overall, but there are moments in the film where you see characters going through emotional meltdowns which are very intense on screen.
Greta Gerwig's character is in a confusing point in her life. It seems that she is on an unending unicorn hunt. She goes through a series of relationships, and we see her character transition from displaying somewhat amusing behavior during breaking up with guy #1 to a point with guy #2 where she realizes that her unhappiness may not be due to the given scenario with guy #1, but a chronic dissatisfaction that keeps her from findinghappiness in any relationship. The moments where she has these meltdowns could not be any more graphic. They are displays of pure emotional honesty. I think that is the thread that is present throughout the film. The characters are not performing to show their best side. They are often time doing things on camera that most of us wouldn't do in front of friends. Like play the trumpet naked in the bathtub with distorting wave lines :) The final chapter of the film seems to give Hannah a feeling of hope after listening to guy #3 (Kent Osbourne) tell his account of his rising out of a seemingly impossible emotional black hole. The ending is graphiclly beautiful ;) Play on pruney trumpeteers!!!
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