A fantastic effort by a debut director. Stanley's Mouth flows freely in and out, simulating a hypnotic dance between the realms of reality and dreams. Throughout the 60-minute film, director Mike Retter is unafraid of letting bouts of lucidity give way to something more, something intangible. What is it that we should contemplate during these breaks? These are not just rhythmic beats for the sake of stylisation, but, I believe, a brief moment of calm to reflect on the previous scene. They are not arbitrarily placed for our amusement - they are deliberately and masterfully placed.
Mike has managed to create a film which balances a raw look with moments of true visual brilliance - club scenes looked fantastic, and anyone who saw snippets of Mike's older experimental piece BANDWIDTH will see the embryonic stages of this visual development. The 9:16 ratio is brilliantly used as well; it is easy to accept the default notion of film taking place along the horizontal widescreen axis - as a Western society we read across this axis, and it is convenient to take most actions we make across this axis as well, from driving cars, to walking, flying, and talking to others - but as Mike explained to me one day when we talked about MOUTH, "when you talk to me here, I am framed vertically by your perspective". And how right he was. The new vertical ratio requires many previously easy-to-frame sequences much more difficult to place in frame. The results create something dynamic. Often to film large groups, Mike will have the camera placed further away to fit them all in the skinny frame. This achieves a sense of distance. Often times the shot is blown out and zoomed in to the closest point it can, the camera either static, as we wonder what it is we're seeing, sometimes swinging wildly to fit everything it can into a moving frame. It's a fantastic contrast that gives the film some real texture, and the audience is better for it. Many films these days refuse to wander into this kind of territory, using flat frames that fit everything in at once. Mike's enthusiastic championing of UN LAC by Philippe Grandrieux, a film that reflects this same idea, has clear influences on MOUTH and its approach to this kind of cinematography.
As a religious film about homosexuality, it is not as negative as one would expect. This is a happy film, and a gentle celebration of the occasional rare unity and acceptance between faith and personal ideals and beliefs. There's a hint of an idea of celebration in MOUTH, at the awkward yet humble embrace between seemingly opposing ideals that one may is. It gives our Stanley colour, and he grows because of it. I won't say too much about the film thematically - I believe MOUTH needs to be seen to be appreciated. The film arrives at points of both happiness and self-doubt for Stanley (played by the immensely talented Stanley Browning, whose brilliant and dedicated performance was enhanced by Mike's brave and ultimately highly successful approach to editing and sound design) but what happens at the end ultimately could go either way for whoever watches it.
A must-see Adelaide film. Watch it immediately, and bug Mike for a copy on DVD.