When crafting stories to immortalise on screen filmmakers often reach for epic events, those formative experiences which are encompassed by phrases such as; "that was the Summer that changed my life" or "after we met I knew things would never be the same again". Yet we all know from experience that real life tends to slip by steadily, with these milestones padded out by the much more mundane aspects of existence. Using good old camera trickery to deliver a narrative that could easily have fallen from the pages of David Eagleman's book Sum, Le Miroir captures a lifetime lived in the POV reflection of the bathroom cabinet:
Conceived and directed by Swiss creative partnership Ramon & Pedro (Antoine Tinguely et Laurent Fauchère), Le Miroir pulled together three generations of the Destraz family to play the 'aging before your eyes' Louis, filling the teen role only after extensive casting hunts and makeup tests. The five day Red shoot was proceeded by a fortnight of set building which, along with the use of body doubles match moving the actors, allowed the production to pull off this 5-90 year old progression over its 6 minute running time. The behind the scenes video reveals some of the techniques they used to pull it off:
As well as performing on the festival circuit, grabbing 'Most Creative Short' in the Shanghai International Film Festival and an 'Audience Award' at the Manlleu Film Festival, Le Miroir must have also really impressed someone over at Warner Bros as the company placed it nationwide across 80 Swedish screens as the opening act to Todd Phillips' Due Date.
Whilst we're on the subject of limited perspective shorts, another excellent example of a film narrowing its field of view (this time to body parts rather than location) to deliver a compelling story is Tom Willems' Left Right. The film focusses attention on the jealously which ferments in a left hand after dominance is snatched away from it and placed with the right at an early age:
In what ways have you imposed limits onto a project's narrative to inspire creativity?
Links:
Le Miroir
Ramon & Pedro
