Bawke - POV - Aarhus Universitet

50 p.o.v. number 21 March 2006
The sexual overture is filmed not only with an objectively observing
camera but also through subjective shots, primarily from the man’s
p.o.v. Early in the ascent there is a subjective tilt down Greta’s body
from her head to her shoe (beautifully matched by the opposite tilt up
to the old woman’s face on the stretcher, which is the opening shot of
the film), and the motif of the shoe recurs when the couple hide from
the neighbour girl (what the man is doing with the shoe is unclear –
does he want to take her shoes off so that they can proceed on tiptoe?).
Later on he lifts her skirt (another subjective p.o.v.) only later to cup
his hand around one of her breasts (graphically matched by the
oxygen mask in the present). And there is yet another graphical match
cut of the old woman caressing the round knob on the banister and the
young woman caressing the man’s head.
The film has no dialogue apart from the fact that the woman’s name
Greta is uttered three times. The soundtrack starts with real sound: at
the beginning the telephone conversation of the paramedics (while the
camera tilts up towards her face and only then focuses). In the next
unfocused shot (seen from Greta’s p.o.v.), one of the paramedics says
the word Greta while shining a light into her eye, looking for signs of
life. After this the title is shown on a black background while her
almost inaudible breathing is heard. And in a new unfocused shot the
real sound has disappeared, replaced by silence, and Greta’s name is
heard again, this time more softly – and maybe uttered by a different
male voice – and there is a cut to the past/the memory where the
young man and woman appear behind the window panes (as
mentioned above) and the woman’s name is said for the third time –
even more softly, but now quite distinguishable as a voice-over. From
this point on, there is music for the rest of the short apart from the few
scenes where suspense is building: they hear the neighbour girl