Elizabeth's Rhapsody

Elizabeth is a solitary woman with dementia, waiting for her husband to come back. She hears the sound of door-knocking occasionally; three people arrive separately and tell her fragments of the story from their past. A plumber comes to fix the bathtub and tells Elizabeth a story that he divorced because of his ego. A young lady comes and tells Elizbeth a hilarious yet embarrassing moment when she fell in love with her husband at first sight. A psychologist comes and reads her a story: a man feels regret and guilt, and he is playing different roles in front of his former wife, trying to recall her memory. Elizabeth loves reading her diary and listening to the blather to fill the emptiness; her occasional lucid moment makes her realize: she is the protagonist of all the stories while all the people appearing in the room are fictional.

  • Xinlian Xu
    Director
  • Xinlian Xu
    Writer
  • Xinlian Xu
    Producer
  • Gail Simpson
    Key Cast
    "Elizabeth"
  • Jim Ewens
    Key Cast
    "Plumber & Dr Matthew"
  • Catherine Lonsdale
    Key Cast
    "Lady"
  • Project Type:
    Feature, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, short film, Narrative, student film, female, Dementia
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 13, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital, RED
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Emily Carr Univeristy of Art + Design
Director Biography - Xinlian Xu

Xinlian (Esther) Xu is a filmmaker and photographer based in the unceded territories of Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (known as Vancouver, Canada). Esther graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, majoring in Film with a minor in Curatorial Practice. She actively volunteers in collaborative projects of photographs and films with students and professionals. Her work is rooted in directing, on-set photography, set design, art direction, and creative production and lighting as a medium for narrative storytelling. Her inspiration for producing artwork is from her life experience as a female in society and informed by a Chinese artist in Canada. She wrote and directed Elizabeth’s Rhapsody: a staged drama in 2019. Then, she moved the ream of theatre into cinema in 2021. She is passionate about recording the world in her eyes through imageries.

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Director Statement

Through my work, I attempt to examine human emotions with compassion and narrate them through my perspective. What began as a personal journey of creating impressionism paintings has translated into media-based artworks like film and photography, which construct my current style— Mise-en-scène —detailing and richness of the objects' colours with dramatic lighting. I explore notions of love, cycles of death and life, and the meanings of life in an atmosphere of romanticism and melancholy.