A Ghost Story
Direction: David Lowery
Screenplay: David Lowery
Cast: Casey Affeck, Rooney Mara
Length: 92 minutes
Rating: 12A
‘A Ghost Story’ examines the universal themes of love and loss, its effects on the human desire for connection over time and memory. A classic human story told with utterly original and completely unpredictable imagination. Starring Oscar winner Casey Affleck as ‘C’ and Oscar nominee Rooney Mara as ‘M’, this film is shot entirely in a square shaped aspect ratio, representing the apparently ordinary lives of the central characters. We follow their apparently ordinary story from their house day in and day out.
A score of tense violins are the only suggestion that the extraordinary may be approaching, with the noises of the train horns blowing in the distance and birds and insects in the surrounding trees amplifying the claustrophobia of the summer heat in normal suburbia. Suddenly, we discover C has been killed in a car accident, only to awaken as a ghost and return home to his girlfriend whom is left behind. Everything changes from here.
As the score vanishes, so do their hopes and dreams for a future together. All safety and security that once existed is gone while painfully long static takes heighten the intensity of loneliness and isolation with no music or dialogue for extended sequences creating further emphasis.
‘A Ghost Story’ is similar in style to the bleak tones of the 2015 film ‘Macbeth’ by Justin Kurzel as well as the 2014 film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ and other works by Wes Anderson through highlighting symmetrical lines and vanishing points, as well as the 4:3 aspect ratio and dolly camera movements.
As time passes, C’s ghost interacts with other residents of the house while the narrative jumps back and forth between life and death, before and after the accident, filling in the painting of the story piece by piece.
From the urban lives of the small town to the big city, to the rural wilderness, we are taken on a journey through time all from the same constant location with twists and surprises in abundance. Our fears of mortality as individuals and humanity as a species are all touched on creating a profound impression long after the film is over. Both spiritual and haunting, sad but not depressing, this piece of work is the epitome of arthouse filmmaking.
It is the absolute antidote to the blockbuster film franchises traditionally released in summer.
Is there something there?
7/10
In Scotland I attended Dunfermline High School from 2010 to 2016 and Edinburgh Napier University from 2016 to 2020, emerging with two Advanced Higher and five Higher qualifications from the former and graduating with an undergraduate bachelor of arts honours degree in journalism from the latter. After two years away from further education due to the coronavirus pandemic, I'm going to be studying the MFA Photography course at York St John University in England from 2022 to 2024. I've achieved The Duke of Edinburgh’s (Bronze) Award and received grade five level certification for electronic keyboard from Trinity College London. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, writing, watching television series, listening to music and going to the cinema as well as catching up with friends, travelling by railway and hostelling overnight and overindulging in food and drinks in a pub or restaurant then having to go to the gym to burn it all off again.
By studying journalism and photography, my aim of practicing photojournalism professionally will hopefully be once step closer. Both are partial artforms requiring the rest of the work to be undertaken by the audience, the specialism of photojournalism, however, providing each of its two parts with greater context. Exploring photographic techniques (aerial, timelapse, editing) through a variety of journalistic styles (features, poetry, songwriting) will allow me to develop my portfolio, hone my camera skillset and narrow my focus further in anticipation of working life. Without a global pandemic to deal with this time. Fingers crossed.
