‘Life’ short film tells the life story of a painter, from the moment he is born to his death, in just over 5 minutes. Sprinkled with most of what a life story takes: childhood, adolescence, love, adulthood, life troubles and dealing with old age, Paula Palumbo’s film is a first person storytelling like you’ve never seen before. And when we say ‘first person storytelling’ we mean literally entirely seen through the character’s eyes.
The entire film is made up of very personal POVs of the main character, making you feel like you are behind her eyes, taking her actions, living her life, feeling her feelings. There are no other shots – just a long row of POVs.
As a viewer you get to experience a very wide array of emotions in a very short time. And though the film is so short it is so well made that it feels like you’ve watched a feature. Cinematography is really good and delightful to the eyes and the director also does a great job making it all fluent and coherent and hiding any unsuspected shortcomings.
Paula Palumbo’s ‘Life’ really stimulates the viewer’s empathy, managing to summarise a life in its peak moments and giving the impression it has slowed down the fast running memory of a life before you die at 24 frames per second so that you as a viewer can catch a glimpse of it. Truly one of the films in our festival with an original vision!
TMFF RATING:
