Watch 7 Women: https://vimeo.com/1015482974?ts=0&share=copy
Watch 7 Men: https://vimeo.com/1015472918?ts=0&share=copy
A head suddenly appears on screen and drama, now face to face, seems to address me personally and swells with an extraordinary intensity. I am hypnotised. Now the tragedy is anatomical. The decor of the fifth act is this corner of a cheek torn by a smile. … Muscular preambles ripple beneath the skin. Shadows shift, tremble, hesitate. Something is being decided. A breeze of emotion underlines the mouth with clouds. The orography of the face vacillates. Seismic shocks begin. Capillary wrinkles try to split the fault. A wave carries them away. Crescendo. A muscle bridles. The lip is laced with tics like a theatre curtain. Everything is movement, imbalance, crisis. Crack. The mouth gives way, like a ripe fruit splitting open. As if slit by a scalpel, a keyboard-like smile cuts laterally into the corner of the lips.
JEAN EPSTEIN
In my series of short films, 7 Men and 7 Women, I explore the lives and stories of fourteen individuals through intimate close-ups. My decision to shoot these films within the vulnerable space of the close-up, using the proximity afforded by the micro physiognomic close-up, enhanced my presentation of the protagonists qualitatively and was instrumental in the men and women’s ability to effectively convey their emotions with precision and immediacy. Thus, leaving us, the viewers, no other option but to look, engage viscerally, and empathise with them.
Framed against white backgrounds and stripped from all but the bare essentials, these photogenic close-ups of the 7 men and 7 women’s faces are not just performances of their story. They are the story. Their faces play the main role in my films. By using close-ups of the human face as my narrative canvas, I wanted to remove the distance between character and spectator. The resulting penetrating intensity is evidence of the power of the close-up to magnify, intensify, provide intimate details, and convey visual emotion that engages the attention of the viewer viscerally.
The close-up undoubtedly has an intensifying and magnifying function. As explained by Balázs in Visible Man and the Spirit of Film, it is indeed the deeper gaze that illuminates the many layers and details of human micro physiognomy, enabling us to perceive subtleties of facial expression, especially those expressions that are made by a character unconsciously. As the camera moves in closer into a face, it renders emotion and movements in their purest state, enabling us to glean qualities that are not readily available on an overall expression, and with such precision that in some scenes, words have become clearly secondary in the cinema. In 7 women, when one of the women, Maria Montalto, speaks in Italian, her physical and vocal enthusiasm shine through the closeup of her face. You don’t need to understand Italian to understand her. The closeup of her face gives the viewer an intensity of vision that overrides language barriers.
The clearer a character’s face becomes through its proximity, the more easily it engages us, inspiring love, empathy, horror, pain or unease and most importantly understanding. One can only imagine whether the story of these 7 men and 7 women would have been as engaging if I had told their story using mainly wide shots. Would it engage us as it has if close-ups did not dominate it?
Balázs believed that the close-up is fundamental in cinematic storytelling. This is linked to the general belief that closeness connotes the truth and that the truth is revealing, whilst distance veils and therefore fails to reveal. One may ask whether this belief has something to do with our growing desire to bring or to have things closer ‘spatially and humanly’ as noted by Walter Benjamin, in his discussion of capitalism, the commodity, and the mechanically reproduced image in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction“. A desire that seems to have led to our increasing consumption of close-ups on our televisions, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
The dramatic effect a close-up can evoke on the viewer is powerful. Its ease in conveying and engaging us to the story on the screen coupled with our growing desire for closeness makes it today’s as well as the future’s most powerful and intimate storytelling device.
The seven men and women in my films have turned their lives and all its challenges into strength. Through my lens, they radiate their inner truths, personalities, and passion. They talk about their lives, what motivates and matter to them, and the threats of our time and of the future. Their vision of our world is up-to-date and timeless. It was my job to edit their thoughts and words into something profound and cinematic. Sometimes I have to condense a story that went on for 15 minutes into a minute. Each scene was shot once.
Perhaps by filming them, I’m asking audiences to assess themselves and think about how they live their own lives. Listening to them, one can’t help wondering whether they are saying hello or whether they are beginning to make their farewells. The question that follows is “What will become of them later?”
In conclusion, the power of close-ups in cinematic storytelling cannot be overstated. Through this series of short films, 7 Men and 7 Women, I have sought to harness this power, bringing the viewer face-to-face with the stories, emotions, and inner lives of my protagonists. By removing the distance between character and spectator, I invite the audience to engage viscerally with these individuals, to empathize with their struggles, and to reflect on their own lives and the world around them. The close-up, with its ability to magnify, intensify, and reveal, remains a fundamental tool for filmmakers seeking to create powerful, intimate, and emotionally resonant stories.