Ostinato

The main character of the short-film is a young lady, named Sonia, at one of the most important moments in her life : in three days, she will finally play at the Philharmonie de Paris as a concertist. Her strive to become a great pianist motivated her to isolate herself, and to step away, even from her closest friends, in a rather radical and not always delicate way. It is this lonely woman who discovers, one morning, a large and painful scar on her left wrist. Because she has no idea whatsoever about its origin, and because the pain she feels threatens her upcoming concert, Sonia will be compelled to contact her friends. Now she is torn between the need to understand what really took place, and the necessity to hide the facts in order not to be professionally discredited. This confrontation with the « outside world » (neighbours, friends, doctor) will be very violent for Sonia, who feels completely misunderstood by those who appear agressive and incompetent to her. Her memory is lacking and, while trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle, she finds it impossible to get a logical and probable outcome. How could it be that the doctor ascertains that she has a support plate inside her wrist, while she knows she has never had an operation? How could she be advised to step back while she must play in 3 days ? She can only imagine one reason : a conspiracy, in a world where pianist positions are very rare. While Sonia pushes herself deeper into the certainty of being manipulated, words shout by a friends will bring all her souvenirs back to her memory. The chronology of events will subsequently be put back in the right order, image after image, feeling after feeling.

With this film, I wanted to address the question of the strength of denial; a denial that follows a traumatic event and which can totally modify the perception of reality, a denial that makes one forget and recreate a different story, built unconsciously, giving the illusion that is it possible to live – and to survive – with this trauma without having to directly confront it.

I wanted to show Sonia in her natural environment, or at least in the life she thinks is true, in a way that the spectator discovers the plot with her. I have always liked films that feature a total turn of events, with a narrative scheme that deconstructs itself and finally offers a second picture of what preceded. I intentionally realized this short-film in that spirit; the denial topic being particularly well suited.

The direction and the image should be in accordance with the scenario. It is through the eyes of Sonia that we discover things. The movie is thus scattered with close-up views of objects surrounding Sonia and the camera seems to wander between sharp and blurry images, just like Sonia’s memory. The movie structure is built on three principal parts : before Sonia’s consciousness recovery, the recollection, and finally after the consciousness recovery. The narrative is thus disrupted right from the second part, letting the spectator play an active role in the story reconstruction.

The movie ends like it started : at the awakening of Sonia, on the day after. Beyond a simple esthetical preoccupation, the choice of « making a loop (ou turn around ?) », was motivated by the will to illustrate how memory can also « make loops » and how things can repeat themselves in a infernal fashion. Could denial be that strong that even its awareness is not enough ? Sonia prefers to lock herself in denial, because the certainty that she can still play the piano is the only thing she could live for. And the following day will, strangely and sadly, resemble the past day.