We take a close look at the new short film The Girls Were Doing Nothing, part of the upcoming feature Eros Cycle. We unpack its allusions to iconic films of couples in crisis, especially Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Mike Nichols’ Closer and Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:00
a beautiful couple perfect apartment
00:08
great jobs what’s wrong with this
00:11
picture
00:12
Israeli filmmaker decal Berenson’s short
00:15
film the girls were doing nothing
00:16
unwraps the layers beneath the seemingly
00:19
ideal relationship part of the larger
00:21
upcoming arrows cycle the girls were
00:24
doing nothing is the first segment of an
00:26
anthology feature looking at modern love
00:28
and romantic dissatisfaction the cycle
00:31
investigates that borderline between who
00:33
we think we are and the adventure or
00:35
danger that lies beyond our comfort zone
00:37
as the stylized mood driven film digs
00:40
into existential inquiries of coupledom
00:43
it alludes to some of cinema’s most
00:45
haunting and disturbing films by
00:47
directors like Stanley Kubrick lars von
00:49
trier and mike nichols even this brief
00:52
table scene is a shout-out to citizen
00:54
Kane’s famous imagery of growing marital
00:56
distance expressed through the breakfast
00:58
table that gets longer over the years
01:00
looking at the girls were doing nothing
01:02
in the aro cycle we can learn a lesson
01:04
about how contemporary films can draw on
01:07
cinematic history to add resonance and
01:10
depth to their themes no filmmaker works
01:12
in a vacuum using cinema classics as
01:15
touchstones new films enter into a rich
01:17
existing discussion and they can carry
01:20
that exchange into a contemporary
01:21
setting building on their iconic imagery
01:24
the girls were doing nothing in the
01:26
larger arrow cycle weave into a rich
01:28
tapestry of cinema classics about desire
01:31
relationships in crisis and the inherent
01:33
contradictions in keeping love alive I
01:36
believe that we have two sets of
01:38
fundamentally
01:40
I need for security and image for
01:42
attention you have to get in it the
01:47
girls were doing nothing is the story of
01:49
a stagnant married couple Marta and Jake
01:52
to modern professionals who appear to
01:54
have everything but no longer connect to
01:56
each other their dilemma recalls Mike
01:58
Nichols closer Don and Betty Draper of
02:01
Mad Men an especially Eyes Wide Shut
02:03
Kubrick’s rich study of marital boredom
02:06
and desire girls opens with an homage to
02:09
Eyes Wide Shut opening shop immediately
02:12
both films put us in the competing
02:13
positions of both an outside erotic
02:16
foyer and the uninterested husband were
02:19
shown a beautiful woman exposed yet
02:21
turned away from us her face and
02:23
feelings inaccessible mysterious and
02:26
thus inherently erotic meanwhile to the
02:29
spouse who might realistically be
02:31
observing this casual moment the sight
02:33
is ordinary even boring soon after were
02:36
given vignettes of mundane domesticity
02:38
the couples live a picture-perfect and
02:41
viewable life yet they’re asleep no
02:43
longer looking at or really seeing each
02:45
other
02:48
it’s great nickels closer shows how
02:53
people appear most desirable when seen
02:55
from a distance or on the other side of
02:57
a barrier like a stripping table where
03:00
the visitor can look but not touch or a
03:02
camera lens which beautifies common or
03:04
ugly situations here the girls were
03:07
doing nothing subtly makes us feel the
03:09
same way about this couple on the other
03:11
side of the lens from us when Marta
03:13
discusses a board travel blogger she’s
03:15
been following and then the other day he
03:18
write this final post about how he’s
03:22
been really bored for the last couple of
03:24
years and that he’s decided to settle
03:27
down because no that was the challenge
03:32
and everybody got really confused
03:35
because they couldn’t understand why
03:38
this guy who’s living everybody’s dream
03:40
life it possibly get bored the cut soon
03:43
after her story to this perfectly
03:45
composed image of their evening in an
03:47
upscale bar equates Marta’s own life
03:50
with her story about the blogger to us
03:52
this picture appears glamorous and
03:54
exciting yet that’s not how it feels
03:56
from the inside the opening quote of the
03:59
girls were doing nothing reads while
04:01
love and intimacy require closeness
04:03
passion and desire thrive on distance
04:06
looking closer at someone can destroy
04:08
their erotic power which is deeply tied
04:11
to the mystery of the unknown and so
04:13
continuing this conversation with these
04:15
other films of marital crisis the girls
04:17
were doing nothing drives home a
04:19
universal fact about relationships they
04:21
always look different from the outside
04:25
Mardas and Jake’s marital boredom is
04:28
interrupted by a mysterious object a
04:30
suitcase their neighbor aundrea asks
04:33
them to look after it while she goes on
04:35
vacation but as Marta digs deeper into
04:37
Andrea’s Facebook account she realizes
04:39
that her neighbours vacation is actually
04:42
quitting her lucrative job and ending
04:44
her relationship intrigued by the mask
04:46
she discovers inside the suitcase Marta
04:49
confronts her own discontent and begins
04:51
to realize that true adventure would be
04:53
to leave behind the security of her
04:55
passionless marriage and have an affair
04:57
with a man who actually looks at her
04:59
while we often equate adventure with
05:01
travel to exotic lands Marta’s story
05:04
redefines adventure as rupture from what
05:07
we’ve grown too comfortable with the
05:09
radical change that most challenges who
05:11
we currently are when Marta Don’s the
05:16
mask Jake comes alive aroused by her
05:19
persona as a stranger now that she’s
05:21
obscured her familiar face and replaced
05:23
her everyday underwear for lingerie the
05:26
echoes of Eyes Wide Shut are very
05:28
deliberate here that film’s climactic
05:30
orgy scene highlights the surprising
05:33
connection between anonymity and sex
05:35
drive the faceless sexual form drives
05:37
our blind lust because we can project
05:40
our fantasies onto a blank face
05:42
exploring the link between sex and
05:44
anonymity also leads to a chilling
05:47
counter suggestion that the person who
05:49
supposedly knows us best our spouse may
05:52
really be a stranger as well a stranger
05:56
moreover our raw desires may reveal that
05:59
we’re strangers to ourselves not really
06:01
the people we think we are sexuality is
06:04
a profound means of knowing and
06:06
expressing the self but it can uncover
06:08
scary truths that shatter our carefully
06:11
constructed outer personas want
06:18
[Music]
06:20
even if it was only from one night
06:26
[Music]
06:30
I was ready to give up everything Marta
06:37
and Jake lead comfortable lives but the
06:40
film sets out to make us uncomfortable
06:42
here it channels the confrontational
06:45
power of nymphomaniac volumes 1 & 2 a
06:47
story that challenges us to face our
06:49
taboos connected to sexuality as Marta
06:52
becomes fascinated by her menstrual
06:54
blood and more curious about masks
06:56
lingerie and rougher sex like Joe and
06:59
nymphomaniac she tests her own
07:01
boundaries while both films test our
07:03
boundaries the viewer may feel
07:05
confronted we may even feel a backlash
07:07
against thoughts and sites we’d rather
07:09
avoid yet our discomfort is the point
07:12
we’d prefer to brush away the thought
07:14
that long-term companionship might be
07:15
antithetical to passion that a beautiful
07:18
high-status woman is turned on by being
07:20
humiliated or that a husband and wife
07:22
are only attracted to each other when
07:24
they pretend they’re strangers but the
07:26
film is forcing us to face these awkward
07:28
inconvenient truths fundamentally the
07:32
films we’re talking about here disrupt
07:34
the common assumption that boys will be
07:36
boys and men will stray but they need
07:39
not worry their wives will do the same
07:41
because the logic goes women are
07:43
intrinsically faithful less driven by
07:45
lust or simply uninterested in sex
07:48
if you man only Alice sets off the chain
07:53
of events an Eyes Wide Shut by revealing
07:55
her lust for a naval officer they once
07:56
saw on vacation joe’s nymphomania makes
07:59
it impossible for her to maintain ties
08:01
to respectable society and when we first
08:03
meet Marta and the girls were doing
08:05
nothing she’s hiding her sexual desire
08:07
from her husband or trying to seduce him
08:10
without any response
08:32
these films emphasize that the pole of
08:35
desire is universal and not gendered in
08:38
the context of society though female
08:40
desire can be read as threatening
08:42
confrontational or obscene when a woman
08:45
expresses her true sexual wants this
08:47
shatters the male image of her as a
08:49
desirable unattainable object to
08:51
preserve that image a real woman must
08:54
either repress herself lie and pretend
08:56
or keep her distance
08:57
[Music]
08:59
the girls were doing nothing expresses
09:02
desire via gran lee cinematic music
09:04
opening with the famous aria from Carmen
09:07
whose lyrics translate to love is a
09:10
gypsy child he has never known the law
09:12
the musical texture reminds us again of
09:15
Eyes Wide Shut and nymphomaniac volume 1
09:17
which both memorably used Shostakovich
09:20
as Walt’s number 2 from sweet for
09:21
variety orchestra in all three the
09:24
character of the music lends waste the
09:26
topic of female desire which mang like
09:28
the music feel dark or frightening at
09:30
times but always sounds momentous
09:32
elaborate and important its martes
09:35
desire that empowers her on this journey
09:37
to pursue true insight into her
09:39
situation and finally open her eyes I
09:41
think I get it
09:45
taking a cue from Kubrick’s power to
09:48
frame people in geometric configurations
09:50
with their surrounding architecture here
09:52
the mathematically composed bar shot
09:54
reminds us of the iconic bar in the
09:56
shining the structured framing and
09:59
production design also make us think of
10:01
the sterile perfection of AMC’s Mad Men
10:03
a stylish Lee composed feel of Tom
10:06
Ford’s a single man the coldly
10:08
attractive wide backdrops mixed with
10:10
emotional close shots and closer and the
10:12
understated ly sensual lighting and
10:14
close-ups of Woody Allen’s match point
10:16
in all of these examples a poised
10:18
affluent exterior belies inner
10:21
loneliness and a potentially dark desire
10:23
bubbling under the restrained
10:25
aesthetically ordered surface
10:28
Marta reveals the meaning of the
10:30
enigmatic title the girls were doing
10:32
nothing after sex and they would look at
10:34
us from the window and they would say
10:40
look at the boys playing football and
10:44
the girls doing nothing we weren’t doing
10:51
nothing
10:54
you were watching far from being nothing
10:57
Marta’s watching throughout the film is
10:59
an active process that leads to her
11:01
final enlightenment it means facing the
11:03
truth that her husband is still blind to
11:05
her and her marriage is physically and
11:07
emotionally empty the themes of watching
11:10
and waking up also speak to our role as
11:12
viewers watching a film shouldn’t be
11:14
doing nothing it should be an
11:15
opportunity to feel challenged to look
11:18
honestly at ourselves and life
11:21
early on she watches Jake dip a cube of
11:24
sugar into his coffee but only halfway
11:27
before he stops the tiny gesture stands
11:30
for a failure to submerge oneself it’s a
11:32
symbol of being asleep not really living
11:35
at the end Marta repeats this gesture
11:37
and pauses before rejecting Jake’s
11:40
restraint the image recalls another
11:49
memorable close-up of sugar in Kristoff
11:52
Kieslowski’s three colors blue but here
11:54
it takes on a different meaning Marta
11:56
simple act of dropping the Cuban fully
11:58
tells us she’s ready to stir things up
12:00
to taste the sweetness life has to offer
12:03
even if everything she’s built for
12:05
herself comes crashing down she’ll be
12:07
awake actively pursuing her desire
12:10
[Music]
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video