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★★★★
Directed by: #TinatinEmiridze
Starring: #AnastasiaChanturaia, #VakhtangZoidze
Where does one begin with Lacrimosa, the #shortfilm named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final piece of work? Tinatin Emiridze’s directs an unsettling yet somehow peaceful film that very much honours the craft of cinema as a piece of artwork in itself. There is no dialogue throughout, only lingering images of two people that ask the audience to study and interpret them for themselves - through their composition and lighting, these sitting moments almost feel like paintings in themselves. Nothing is spoon fed here to the viewers of Lacrimosa, and it leaves questions to be asked long after the credits have rolled. Emiridze and Director of Photography Giga Gabriel Jobava do an immense job of escorting the audience's eyes throughout the frame, utilizing smooth and measured camera movement through open settings whilst choosing to really take control of their audiences vision with pull focuses and extreme close-ups of the art centrepiece that is prominent throughout the film. These deep and textured frames are intercut beautifully over Mozart’s Lacrimosa, providing the audience with moments of not just a visual art, but a multi-dimensional artistic experience.
Although Jobava does a good job at controlling the frame, the mise-en-scene falters at points which sometimes render the image one dimensional, particularly the scene at the dinner table. However, despite this particular scene, production designer Anano Dolidze did well to build a setting that, although felt almost eerily empty, also felt like a separate character within itself. Throughout the vast majority of Lacrimosa, we are not brought into these characters lives personally but are merely observers looking from the outside in, and although this distance offers us the chance to interpret the situation that these two characters are in for ourselves, it also deprives us of connecting with them on an emotional level. This detachment affects the experience for the viewer as ultimately, yes, we do have questions to ask once the credits rolled, but do we really care about the characters or the story? Obviously this will vary for each individual viewer, however, it is a brave risk that Lacrimosa has decided to take.
This film is an impressive homage to both Mozart and the language of cinema. The director has a unique and interesting vision which calls viewers of Lacrimosa into question on a deeper level. The subtle but effective physical performances by Anastasia Chanturaia and Vakhtang Zoidze speak louder than any dialogue could have and Tinatin Emiridze directs Giga Gabriel Jobava’s lens to paint an intriguing, weird, yet wonderful motion picture.
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