Wednesday 16 October 2013

Love Me or Leave Me Alone


Love Me or Leave Me Alone

Love Me Or Leave Me Alone is a short film directed by Duane Hopkins, it has won over 30 international awards including the Gold Hugo from Chicago and Best British Short film at the Edinburgh film festival. The short film follows two teenagers Steven, played by Jay Firkins and Jessica, played by Zoe Rietti. Who try to deal with the emotions of being in love.

I felt that it was a touching film with good but stripped down scrip, the minimal dialogue works really well as it helps you appreciate how good the young actors are. The minimal dialogue also allows the actors to convey they emotion through body language and facial expressions the director captured this emotion by using many close ups and mid shots. The most memorable has to be this one at the very start of the film. Just from this shopshot we can see so the different emotions in Steven face.

 Another way the director as tried to convey the emotion of a young relationship is by enhancing the sound of the couple breathing. To me this adds to the tension of the film but also makes the whole viewing experience, for me, a little uncomfortable. To be honest this isn’t really a bad thing as this short film isnt your typical love story as the director is trying to show the difficulties of a young relationship

The movie is short but quite intense and often left the audience guessing especially the car scene. Lots of cars drive past but when the one pulls up my heart drops as I was expecting the worst for Jessica. The camera focus on the wind mirror reflection as we see Steven try to catch the car, this shot is very quick and only last a couple of seconds, for me this shot need to be a lot longer as it would have made the scene much more intense.  this scene was quite misleading as it gives the impression that the cars are going to play a much a majour role.

Overall this film isn’t perfect film as it is quite misleading  with the overloud traffic noises and the way Jessica is holding her belly giving the impression that’s shes pregnant. For me the ending was very rushed as we don’t know who the letters to but also what happens to Steven.  Despite this it is a great little snapshot of a typical teenage relationship - passionate, rocky, bewildering and soul 
destroying.


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