And what if, one day, darkness will prevail? What should we do, or how will we cope with it? T.S. Eliot gave an interesting quote regarding this matter: “So the darkness shall be the light and the stillness the dancing”. For many, this quote has almost no sense at all, but for David Woods it seems like it was like a motto without knowing it. In ‘Till Sunset’, darkness seen as an exterior determinant played a very important role in the course of the narrative; not once we saw its subtle presence playing around the characters, changing the course of the action.
‘Till Sunset’ has a rich background of themes and symbols that are defining this feature. We will try and point out some of them and ultimately try and see why they were important and how much of a influence they have. First of all, we have to point out the overwhelming atmosphere – from the beginning of this feature we feel the tension in the air pointing out that weird things are going to happen, and we have to be aware that it will not be pretty when they will happen. The shady camera work and the blurry filming technique emphasize the angst that defines this movie from the beginning till the end. Another interesting aspect that caught our eye was the usage of certain colors, like blue or red in key scenes, opting for a sensorial approach on the viewers. The shift between the forest scenes and the flashbacks are also another brilliant method of playing with the viewers’ mind to the point where the story begins to look like a nightmare that has no foreseeable ending. Another aspect that came to transform this movie from a feature film to a full sensorial experience was the trippy score, building the tension to the point where we had to question everything that moved in each and every scene.
The dialogue seemed like a combination of Steven King and Shirley Jackson, two masters of the genre, filtered through Emily Dickinson’s obscurity and existentialism. The characters stranded into the forest coping with paranoia and with the nightmarish experience are like in a fish tank where someone is playing with their fate. They are trying hard to cope with this situation but it is hard enough to avoid making mistakes. ‘Till Sunset’ was a surprise for us, a movie that played with our minds and raised important questions about the human nature. If he keeps this path, David Woods will surely have his privileged place in the ‘psychological movie directors’ hall of fame.
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