“Cold Souls ”(2009, directed and written by Sophia Barthes) is a comedy-drama film based on a philosophical idea of soul storage that was inspired by a dream of Woody Allen’s discovery of his chickpea soul. The film’s plot is about an anxious actor, Paul Giamatti (Paul Giamatti as himself) who extracts his soul after he feels stuck distinguishing his acting character, Uncle Vanya, and himself. The film starts with Paul struggling to express the character and stores his soul as life without it “makes so much more sense.” He becomes disappointed that his soul came out as a tiny chickpea. When his 95% of his soul is stored, he goes through troubles in his career and marriage. Then he consumes a soul of a Russian poet that plays the soul’s memories and helps him in Paul’s play. However, a Russian soul trafficking mule, Nina (Dina Korzun), steals Paul’s soul to give it to her boss’s wife, a soap opera actress, whom believes that it is the soul of Al Pacino. Later, Nina helps Paul to get his soul back in Russia and Paul finds out his soul donor has committed suicide. After reconnecting with his soul, Paul returns to New York happily while he is unable to recover Nina’s soul.
Barthes is praised for its cinematography in portraying and analyzing the complex and philosophical idea of extracting souls. The scenes are balanced with bright and dark lights that helps the audience to contrast the scenery and see the visual differences of reality and fantasy. He also uses dark lighting for reality of the night life in the Paul and Nina’s rooms. When Paul looks into his donor’s soul, Barthes uses blurry bright lights that makes the effect of the scene. Barthes does not significantly change the mood of the film after Paul extracts his soul. Paul does not show much of a free life from worries and trouble. Paul is in a constant trouble and is going through bizarre situations of changing souls. Therefore, Paul shows his complex emotions through confusion and unconsciousness. Barthes clearly shows the bizarre situations by the meeting of Paul and the soul doctor, Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn). The soul doctor contrasts Paul as the doctor is serious about the whole soul extraction process while Paul is dumbfounded. The editing of the film is somewhat rough that uses many different angles in small scenes. When Paul looks into his soul, he walks in a place where there are bald people and sees a pregnant woman, baby and a little boy. The sharp editing of this scene makes the perfect effect of uncertainty and the complex character of Paul. Also Barthes clearly depicts the cold weather of Russia with the icy setting and Paul’s hat.
“Cold Soul” won and received many awards from film associations and film festivals. At the Independent Spirit Awards, the film was nominated for best cinematography and best first screenplay. Also, Dina Korzun was nominated for best supporting female.The budget for the film is low and the gross is around $900,000 (www.imdb.com). It is an odd movie that brings a new kind of feel in the categories of film. As Paul looks into his soul to solve his problem, it is a good didactic film that shows the audience to understand their own struggle in life and shows the uniqueness and necessity of souls. It is a soul searching comedy that is rated PG-13 for nudity and brief strong language.
No comments:
Post a Comment