Scribd
Upload
86 views

Clergyman and The Seashell

The film features a clergyman who experiences strange, dreamlike events as he crawls after a soldier through an unstable, liminal space. Scenes are presented out of sequence and transition abruptly between different times, spaces, and realities using lens distortions, double exposures, and other visual effects. Repetitive motifs like the seashell are used to suggest the cyclical nature of the clergyman's desires or the triggering of past trauma. It remains unclear what is real versus imagined.

Uploaded by

S Li
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
86 views

Clergyman and The Seashell

The film features a clergyman who experiences strange, dreamlike events as he crawls after a soldier through an unstable, liminal space. Scenes are presented out of sequence and transition abruptly between different times, spaces, and realities using lens distortions, double exposures, and other visual effects. Repetitive motifs like the seashell are used to suggest the cyclical nature of the clergyman's desires or the triggering of past trauma. It remains unclear what is real versus imagined.

Uploaded by

S Li
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Clergyman and the Seashell

Cyclical, visual distortion, memory-based, psychological, sexual, narrative,


jarring, etc. spatiotemporally free, out-of-sequence presentation of narrative.

SOlider Cutting in and out of existence

Lens distortion

Double exposure of certain objects

Sword wiggling

Glass and relfection and light all fuse

Narrative element, Clergyman crawls after soldier

Comical transition

Double exposure fade transitions, give sense of lost wandering, tiredness,


dreamlike quality, also car footage moving forward, we assume that it's the
clergyman crawling along??

Fades with buildings through distorted window/lens

Lens FX and abberation

Telescope shot

Narrative element resumes, clergyman finds solider and woman

Fade transitions vs hardcuts create wandering sense, hypnopompic sense,


drunkenness, lack of sobriety

Time slowed again as clergyman attacks booth/officer

Spatial transition—Solider is suddenly wearing a shawl

We almost dont notice, and accept it, hard to remember if he was wearing one before

Eye contact shots

Lines on face appearing, face bisected, recalls previous light fx and reflection
shots, then continues on with normal shots to transition out

strange effects and moments occur without explanation, and then the film continues
on wihtout any sense of hesitation, ignoring it all.

cut to water shot, and then back to the two, this time in a different liminal
space, spatial transition. jarring transition

Sky and water return for longer, comparisons between the two are drawn, clouds
against sky vs waves against the water.

CLergyman and solider both appear for a second, and then jarring transition back
into the liminal space.

extremely unstable setting, they teleport in and out, back and forth. Narrative is
super spatiotemporally free, but still somehow exists on a primitive level.
Lens FX return on the woman's breast, create jarring effect, obfuscation

Seashell = repetition of thematic material, like contiguity for Clergyman's


desires, or triggers recalling a past trauma

normal dance scene

then soldier returns with woman

Clergyman appears liek an apparition with seashell, Lens FX again—extremely


cyclical

People all become appairitions, even objects become appairitions (seahsell)

What is real and what isn't??

Things distort and change and change before our eyes without explication or even
acknowledgement

beautiful lake shot—return of chasing motif, cyclical

Abrupt spatial transition

Jarring cut-aways to different time/space/liminal space, suggesting desire


(distorted boobs 22:00)

distorted lady footage 22;40 is suggestive and psychosexual

Many different establish motifs return and converge without eplanation, but somehow
feel related...the lady with a double exposure over the sky

two types of cuts

(fades between diff shots of the Clergyman gesturing with finger, indicating a
dreamlike hypnopompia, deep hidden dream desire, taboo, etc.)

satire of religious vfigure having depraved sexual desire

hallway scene, super confusing liminal space

return to lakeside, this time soldier is back (cyclical)

2x, hands over lady's neck, which then transofrms into a model castle which then
disappears into some water it is in, then same water shot reappears

water reflections and ripples with clergyman super imposed, distorted ripples, fx,
etc.

Ship with beautiful water shot, cleryman still at btoom left, as if a simultaneous
false counter-shot, like he is watching everything we're seeing, or we're seeing
into his mind in this moment

water shot again

smoke motif, obfuscation, fluidity of water also mirrored, also recalls clouds,
waves, etc. white wavy pattern over black, and nature imagery

Cut back to clouds


With model castle

Jarring hardcut to mutliple maid scene, ripped from the overwhelming 2x dream to a
more concrete setting

36:30 act of remembering, crucial to the cyclical aspects of this film

imagery is repeated over and over and all related to each other via comparison,
juxtaposition

everything becomes a metaphor for each other, somehow in this loose way

The waves the ship is on are related to other ocean waves, which are related to
clouds, smoke, etc.

Ending of seashel with his head in it and him dirnking the blood, confirms that it
is a metonym of himself, almost masturbatory or suicidal in some way, or
autocannibalism. self-harm is clear, pain is clear, and some darkness in the mind
is clear.

==========

a work of visual art rather than conceptual art

Grab and subvert wasn't a part of the film's structure

Nature scenes helps the water and waves become something else, something unreal,
moving similarly, on a similar plane, feeling emotion vs seeing it

Nature is viewed differently...you go outside and realize "It's all connected..."

Puppet-like, figures being moved through the space, not real people

Crawling crawling crawling, etc.

in the opening shot, he feels hypnopompic

quiet dreamlike action, cut in with sudden action juxtapositions

German expressionism

Beauty of shots, manipulation of images, manufacure of emotions thru manipulated


shots

Priest's expressions were too emotive, telling us what to think too much

After the sensory experience of violence—sensorial (think Audition)

Creating a violent response in the body without a narrative attachment

Artaud felt that language condensed an idea / experience

You might also like