French Artist Sophie Calle and American Photographer Greg Shephard’s autobiographical account of their road trip across America. Both hide behind their cameras as they make the mythical journey westward from New York to California in Greg’s troubling convertible. The couple stop in a Las Vegas Drive-Thru wedding chapel and decide to get married in order to save their shaky relationship, with their cameras recording everything.
Thus, when we see Shepard, we are behind Calle’s lens and when she appears on screen, we are following Shepard’s version. At the same time, we also hear their running commentary in voice over, one in English and the other in French. The soundtrack, moreover, combines a number of elements, live sound, each of the participants in voice over offering us his or her impressions and true feelings, and finally the voice of Calle officiating as an omniscient narrator, commenting on and analyzing the latest twists in the story and effecting, if necessary, flashbacks and flash forwards to explain the events taking place.
I found the film intriguing in the sense that this relationship was quite disturbing, and how exactly they managed to stay together despite the other woman at the end and Calle finding out about her. It’s even more disturbing the fact that some of the scenes are relatable and often worrying. People in relationships are often worried their partner will think the thoughts Greg had about Calle, especially at the beginning, or the worry of being financially in debt and reliance to someone like Greg is to Calle, thus causing a hatred for her. This examination, using both of their thoughts, was powerful and made me think of ways to document my thoughts and messages into my work in this way, by making them literal spoken thoughts for the audience.
saratrouble 