Monday, January 10, 2011

Man on toilet



I interviewed Sam Pilling and filmmaking collective SHELLBOOKNATIONAL about the unofficial video they made for David Lynch's "I Know" track.
As a simple narrative breakdown, we wanted to portray the demise of a man whose feelings of lust, desire and obsession controls and engulfs him. As a viewer, we are not sure whether all the women he sees are in fact real or part of some warped inner reality. The man is on the toilet as a metaphor for this lust: something he wants constantly regardless of where he is, and what he is doing. The toilet also suggests his vulnerability in this situation, the breaking of his control, and a turning point in the narrative where we discover that his desires are actually controlling him. The fact that he cannot leave the toilet to reach the woman represents his frustration.
[Read it]