Sally Potter films children playing on the sidewalk from two cameras side-by-side, one with color film stock and the other with black and white. Sometimes the images are cut together so that the action flows uninterrupted from one side to the other, sometimes she purposefully upsets this. The color side seems to have more movement and energy—partially because it is lighter (the eye is attracted to light, after all), partially because the kids tend to stay over on that side more often (this may have been an editorial choice by Potter). Disturbing ambient music plays over the children, mixing a playful jazzy theme with a resonant tension-building one—from the music alone Potter seems to be saying something about voyeurism and watching, but I am not so sure this choice of music was the best choice. For instance, cuts are accompanied by a loud sound a la a slasher movie that is not fully supported by the action or the framing, so that the music seems to be forcing a reading into the images that may not actually be there. For this reason, the most effective moments are not when the children are playing or people are passing by, but when the children have stopped to look at us. Only once a communication has been set between the gaze of the children and the gaze of the audience does the framing, music, and action all fully support each other.
--PolarisDiB
--PolarisDiB
