A young awarded writer is working on her new project. But as she is working, a hole starts to appear in the wall behind her, distracting her and making her lose track of her ideas. As the hole grows bigger it starts to swallow everything: food, coffee and even a cat the writer buys in order to keep her company and help her overcome the impasse.
Wade Koch’s short film ‘The Muse Will Find You Working’ is obviously an allegory about the writer’s block. And it is also full of symbols. The most important concept the director plays with is ‘inspiration’ – which he personifies under the presence of a little girl looking exactly like the elder writer only that she is of a smaller age. We see them spend time together after which the writer’s mood changes and she immediately restarts work. This time she apparently writes about herself and the little girl. Wade Koch’s story is about the artist’s condition and about the sacrifice redeemed by art.
Inspiration is sincere, it is authentic and in the director’s vision it comes from our own life experiences and our own individual way to relate to life. As a result, as soon as the main character starts to spend time with ‘inspiration’ – ‘living’ – she acquires new experiences which she feels are endowing her with ‘creative momentum’. But consumed by her ambition to create and possibly her vanity for further recognition she starts to ignore what she had just learned – to ‘live’. In such a context Wade Koch indicates the artist grows empty of experiences and therefore inspiration leaves her. Her incapacity to retrieve her writing talent consumes her quickly and fills her with remorse. The sacrifice is losing connection with ‘life’ and all the great things that come with it. It is often the artist’s condition to end up lonely and ‘exhausted’ by their creation.
‘The Muse Will Find You Working’ is simply fantastic. No dialogue supports the story but only a great visual narration and an outstanding editing that brings the film ‘alive’ by varying the film’s pace from the joyful ‘allegretto’ of the enthusiastic writer in the opening, to the ‘adagio’ tempo of the creator’s moment of crisis and finally to the ‘largo’ tempo of the ending scene. Both cinematography and editing done by the same Wade Koch confer the film a very artistic feel. Together with the beautiful music and the wonderful acting the result is simply stunning. This short film will not be easy to decipher and is definitely not a film for the masses. It addresses to a very specific category: the intellectual art lover.
‘The Muse Will Find You Working’ is a mini-masterpiece, an ars poetica of writing, but also a ‘business card’ confidently devised that highlights all its creator’s skills: Wade Koch.
We personally loved it! A short film by its nature, ‘The Muse Will Find You Working’ is one of the best art-house projects we’ve hosted in our festival. You must not miss this one!
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