Short Film Showcase: All the Colours of You
2009
Dir. Paul Synnott
A woman hurts herself in the bathroom, but seems to show no signs of pain. How long will it take before the damage catches up with her? Shot on Super-8 film, Paul Synnott’s short film is a haunting and quietly upsetting rumination on the horror of human psychology. While the narrative is akin to peering into someone else’s nightmare, it is vaguely linear in form, and as it progresses, feelings of dread and unease reach out from dark, dank depths...
Up close and personal camerawork proves very unsettling, disarming even, as we’re privy to a very private and painful moment. The lasting effect is a lingering, creepy one, as though we’ve intruded somewhere we shouldn’t have. Shades of early Polanski (think Repulsion) and even a touch of Hooper (some of the editing calls to mind the opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) hint at Synnott’s influences, while the Super 8 film gives it the look and feel of something we shouldn’t be witnessing. Something unclean. Unsafe. Certain moments recall the short films of David Lynch (Darkened Room and Premonition Following an Evil Deed in particular), so murky and surreal they appear. Synnott deftly creates striking imagery: the woman emerging from a darkened doorway, a bulging, panicked eyeball in close-up, a disembodied hand reaching around a door – all the while maintaining a near suffocating sense of foreboding.
The dank atmospherics are shot through with burnished stylisation, while the obscure narrative reflects the fractured mind-space of the protagonist. It’s an interesting and disquieting approach to depicting the myriad thoughts and anxieties of a singular moment; a blood-dark moment, and all the fear encapsulated within it.
Unnerving and weirdly beautiful, All the Colours of You is a haunting mood-piece of a film. Watch it here. Follow Paul Synnott on Twitter and check out his blog Radio Morgue.
Dir. Paul Synnott
A woman hurts herself in the bathroom, but seems to show no signs of pain. How long will it take before the damage catches up with her? Shot on Super-8 film, Paul Synnott’s short film is a haunting and quietly upsetting rumination on the horror of human psychology. While the narrative is akin to peering into someone else’s nightmare, it is vaguely linear in form, and as it progresses, feelings of dread and unease reach out from dark, dank depths...
Up close and personal camerawork proves very unsettling, disarming even, as we’re privy to a very private and painful moment. The lasting effect is a lingering, creepy one, as though we’ve intruded somewhere we shouldn’t have. Shades of early Polanski (think Repulsion) and even a touch of Hooper (some of the editing calls to mind the opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) hint at Synnott’s influences, while the Super 8 film gives it the look and feel of something we shouldn’t be witnessing. Something unclean. Unsafe. Certain moments recall the short films of David Lynch (Darkened Room and Premonition Following an Evil Deed in particular), so murky and surreal they appear. Synnott deftly creates striking imagery: the woman emerging from a darkened doorway, a bulging, panicked eyeball in close-up, a disembodied hand reaching around a door – all the while maintaining a near suffocating sense of foreboding.
The dank atmospherics are shot through with burnished stylisation, while the obscure narrative reflects the fractured mind-space of the protagonist. It’s an interesting and disquieting approach to depicting the myriad thoughts and anxieties of a singular moment; a blood-dark moment, and all the fear encapsulated within it.
Unnerving and weirdly beautiful, All the Colours of You is a haunting mood-piece of a film. Watch it here. Follow Paul Synnott on Twitter and check out his blog Radio Morgue.
