SMIBE-Bell Jar

The Rotterdam Maas Tunnel, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a 1.5km long tunnel, forms the backdrop of the short film Bell Jar.

A girl ponders about her feelings for a BOY. As she talks, you realise her emotional journey begins to correlate with the space that she is in. Her journey to liberation is followed by the viewer in a single shot through the tunnel, where the shot alternates between GIRL to GUY in a linear space.

The camera becomes a single perspective where the parameters of its operations were determined- namely a single panning shot with constant speed in one direction, while the actors dance around the camera, acting in front and out of camera. The repetition of actor A and B throughout the tunnel sets the rhythm of the conversation and gives a surrealistic notion of space and time which can only be successfully achieved with the camera. The tunnel becomes a dream world.

The story is expressed through the postures of the actors as the camera rolls past them. They are almost akin subconscious movements when one is dreaming or thinking about something. The GIRL is expresssive and thinks with her body, while the GUY is listening; the tension and minimal movements reflect an introvert personality.

Throughout, GIRL and GUY converse, but they are almost in their own world respectively- they speak in different languages and they do not appear in the same shot until the end. Bell Jar refers to Sylvia Plath’s work The Bell Jar, where the GIRL perceives the BOY as insulating himself in a bell jar, unreachable by her.

This is a three-minute edit of a sixteen minute film.

More information on: doorsshortfilm.blogspot.com