Fashion & Fantasy | Part 21

Intimacy—a situation in which you have a close friendship or sexual relationship with someone. Intimacy is a carefully outlined part of a relationship. It’s complicity, knowing one another and feeling comfortable with showing what we are most embarrassed of. It’s often what we miss after a breakup and something that takes time to cherishingly build up.

The Idyll

The film that I would like to open with is Justin Anderson’s adaptation of a short story by Guy de Maupassant: The Idyll. It tells the story of two strangers on a train, awkwardly getting to know each other. Intimacy here is expressed through the distance and closeness of the characters, whose socially questionable actions leave us wondering about the relationship between being physically and mentally intimate.

Son Little

The next two films, both directed by Daria Geller, continue with the exploration of physical and mental intimacy. Son Little - The Middle explores the complexity and nuances of intimacy without any dialogue. It’s almost as if language is not sufficient enough to express it, seeing dance and therefore a physical connection, as the more suitable medium.

Collapsology

Geller’s latest work, on the other hand, focuses more on how there also needs to be a mental connection. In Collapsology we are granted a view into the thoughts of a man struggling to come to terms with the expectations his partner has of him. Feeling caged, trapped and filled with doubt, his crescendo of anxiety is reflected through the man’s internal monologue, visually expressed with quick bursts of emotionally charged shots, set against a dark colour palette.

Period Piece

In a similar vein as The Idyll, the next piece also measures intimacy by our level of comfort in discussing topics and performing actions considered socially awkward. In Period Piece by Jazmin Jones, two young lovers discuss period and what it means to them and their relationship. Using something very physical as a way to test their relationship, this short film illustrates through its script as well as its visual language the complexity that comes with a high level of intimacy.

Stories We Tell Ourselves

The last piece has a more melancholic feel; a heart wrenching, beautifully shot depiction of a breakup. Stories We Tell Ourselves is a personal, yet very relatable story—the third and final installment of a series of visual shorts by director Andrew De Zen. Flashbacks, hopes and waves of nostalgia form the core of this film in which intimacy is portrayed as something that we crave and long for once a relationship is over.