June 28, 2007
Mia Goldman’s film is an ‘Open Window’ into trauma and recovery
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To make "Open Window," Goldman watched classic films, such as Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" and Ingmar Berman's "The Virgin Spring," which inexplicitly depict horrifying rapes. "So many movies depict wide shots and men thrusting, but I did not want to be so literal," she says."People think they see a rape in 'Open Window,' but there is no rape depicted," she adds. "Rather, I tried to use montages of close-up, intimate images -- like Izzy's limp hand moving during her ordeal -- so that the viewer feels the cumulative effect of many shots."
One scene -- a close-up of Izzy's toe plugging a dripping bathtub spout -- suggests the sensitivity to sound experienced by post-traumatic stress victims. "It's also her desire to stop the 'sound' of the rape that keeps replaying in her head," Goldman says.
"You can become so sensitive to sound, you feel almost like an alien," Goldman adds. "You feel like you're alone, and that's the reason I made the movie, [so people will] know that in the aftermath of a trauma you don't have to be so alone as I had felt."
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