The Face of Time - POV - Aarhus Universitet

A Danish Journal of Film Studies 27
forward to life, at the film’s end we see two old women also looking
ahead, but this time towards death.
The varied repetitions of narrative patterns in the different age
groups and developmental stages indicate that we are not just
seeing a progressive development. The repetitions concern needs
and aspects that are common to all human beings and manifest at all
ages, such as physical contact and belonging to or being outside of
social groupings. In this way not just the differences between the
age groups, but also the connections between them are emphasized,
which is accurately expressed through the film’s use of the varied
repetitions.
The film creates an overall connection between all the women
portrayed, not only through the continuity of time, the flow of the
visual style and the soundtrack, but also through transitions and
continuity in the narrative. One example of a narrative transition is
seen between shot 20 and 22. In shot 20 we see a young woman with
shoulder length curly hair, lying in a sun-bed and wearing
protective goggles. In shot 22 the woman getting up from the sunbed
and removing her goggles also has shoulder length curly hair
but is obviously a few years older than the first woman. The two
shots have a direct narrative connection with each other, and the
physical similarity of the two women might indicate that they are
the same woman, at different ages. Apart from creating a dynamic
as well as a connection between the shots, this also emphasizes the
connection between the women and the age groups, once again
pointing out the film’s universal developmental perspective.
Embodied experience
The film creates a metaphysical level which portrays life and which
contrasts life to that which comes before and after it. You can thus