The Problem of Defenition

So, what is the movie about?

That is a question I have always struggled to answer when I am working on projects, even though I do understand the desire to know. Perhaps I'm just not the best person to ever be answering that question, but at this point there's not a whole lot of others that can even try. So here we go.

waltz is many things to me, which is where much of the problem stems from. On a strictly narrative level, which is what I think most people are asking for, it can be described quite simply. It is a story of a man and woman. They are married and are experiencing a rough patch of sorts in their relationship. In an attempt to alleviate the growing tensions and hostility the man takes the woman on a camping trip at the same abandoned farm he used to visit as a child.

This is the basic set-up and yet it says almost nothing about why I am making the film. Another way to view the film is a dissolve. The characters enter the film steadfast in their individual positions and over the course of the film these things which we put so much importance on in our everyday lives fade away to leave us and the characters with something much more base and yet complex.

Then there is the small moments, a fleeting look or a willful attempt to not look, than can never be captured in the broad strokes of a narrative summary. Or the feelings. Perhaps the best summary of a film would just be a list of the feelings one felt while watching it.

Ultimately though I know that the reason why the back of the box never gives you a list of the feelings you will feel, or describes 5 seconds out of hour and a half movie, is that most people aren't looking for a continuation of any kind of artistic statement. They really just want to know one thing: is it worth it?

Obviously I am not the most objective person to be answering this, but I really do hope it will be. This movie is being made by a group of people who really do care. The movie has not been designed to make us rich. It has not been made to write film theory about. While it may not contain the cheap thrills that fill the theaters, I believe it does contain many things that are pertinent to the people that attend those theaters.