Visual
Look
The film is shot on black and white 16mm film, and is
set in a loft apartment in Paris, France. Together,
these elements add a nice artistic feel to the movie.
Creative use of light and dark must be utilized to compensate
for lack of color. The director makes good use of the
windows in the apartment, and the set and props are
either light or dark (very little gray), so nearly everything
is clearly visible. Except for one brief shot (which
was very underexposed), the entire film is well-lit
and balanced.
While
there aren't very many dramatic camera setups, there
are some nice POV shots from both perspectives in the
scenes when Joy and Jude are making love. Also, the
blocking in several scenes is well done (e.g. when they
are laying on the bed talking, sitting on the floor
eating pizza, etc). These examples of creative layout
are especially beneficial when almost all of the action
takes places in the same location.
Use
of Audio
For the most part, the audio in the film was decent.
There were a few times when it has that slight echo-y
reverberation that you get when filming in a brick-walled
room. Additionally, there were several scenes where
off-camera dialogue with the other character was difficult
to hear, because it hadn't been recorded clearly enough.
Re-recording of the off camera audio would be required
to clean up this audio. (A good idea to think about
for 10th anniversary edition of this film in a few years!)
The
music was very well done and had an eclectic, acoustic
feel to it that integrated perfectly with the movie.
It also didn't overpower the dialogue at any point.
