Heart
WATCH THIS SCENE(FOOTAGE FROM FULL LENGTH FILM 55:00 – 61:23)
Heart Attack *55-:00 - 58:32*
Questions
| SIGNIFIERS | DESCRIPTION | EFFECTS |
| VISUALS | Darkened space – bodies lit as silhouettes. | Ominous. |
| SOUND | A strong and regular heart beat. Other rhythms are superimposed to synchronise, including live body-induced sounds (slaps off arms to sides) The melodic ideas and rhythms are persistent.
Gradually rhythms start to fall out of sync and are superimposed one upon another in a tangled mess. The texture becomes an incoherent counterpoint. |
Dramatic tension – blood coursing through the body pumped by a young strong heart.
The heart becomes a ‘wriggling bag of worms’ no longer able to pump the blood: heart attack. |
| MOVEMENT | Rapid, tiny shifts of weight repetitive, rhythmic and in perfect unison.
Tiny sharp vertical jumps with an asymmetrical whipping arm gesture punctuate the settled rhythm Change of face. Unison returns but quickly falls away until all movement is out of sync.Naomi falls out of the group. Arches her back x 4 Series of cameo stills: resuscitation shape; naturalistic gestures: hand on arm, focus, expression, turning away. |
The heart is pumping regularly – peaks could suggest the printout of the heart beat on a monitor or could mean a ‘blip’ or tiny undiagnosed issue that goes unnoticed.
At first synchronised, the impulses become erratic but rhythm and unison is restored – Time passes, but impulses are failing more often. Naomi is resuscitated 4 times but her heart refuses to restart. |
Summary of meaning, mood and significance
Love *58:32 - 61:22*
Questions
| SIGNIFIERS | DESCRIPTION | EFFECTS |
| VISUALS | Giant pulsating heart images. | Strong life force. |
| SOUND | Everything fades to a single throbbing heart beat Sustained strings include fragments plucked on a harp. Strong string melodies crescendo in a minor keyEverything fades to an electric fizzle. |
Life goes on but pain and loss is prevalent – plucking on the heart strings Feelings of sadness intensify It’s all down to biological electricity. |
| MOVEMENT | Dancers disappear inside the film; their body parts forming and re-forming the shape of the heart and its major structures; fluid movement. | Unity and support in the face of the tragedy of young life lost; the devastating, life-destroying impact on those who remain. |
