There was little choice given this was the standard length of a film camera magazine. And the cuts were concealed with cunning pans towards darkness a character's back, the lid of a chest before re-emerging from the gloom with the camera freshly loaded.
Of course, this was before the advent of lightweight HD digital cameras — highly portable devices that are able to shoot for hours at a time, even in low light. So why didn't they? Certainly, if we'd wanted to, we could've pulled the whole thing off truly in one single shot. During the US release, however, Silent House has been marketed as a single-take film. Is it being dishonest?
Kentis thinks not. It isn't a matter of how we achieved it. Indeed, the end result is impressive. Impossible to see where the dots have been joined, the film's intense, claustrophobic atmosphere benefits from its long, uninterrupted takes, sewn together as one. Admittedly, Silent House and its Uruguayan predecessor have already been beaten to it by some genuine one-take movies. Aleksandr Sokurov's film Russian Ark is a deft waltz around the corridors of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in an attempt to bring to life Russian history.
This was confirmed in an interview by Elizabeth Olsen and the directors. Goofs Blood appears on Sarah's chest and blouse in different places, and different patterns. Quotes Sarah : Come on, don't be shy! User reviews Review. Top review.
Could have been great If not for the filmmakers deliberately sacrificing content for supposed style, "Silent House" could have been an intelligent and disturbing horror film -- perhaps even a classic. All the elements were in place: creepy location, good actress, decent story with a few twists. But regrettably, "Open Water" directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau's decision to remake a low-budget Uruguayan film also includes its main gimmick: filming the entire movie in one supposedly unbroken, continuous take.
And therein lies the problem. This film, while ambitious on a technical level, demonstrates the importance of building up needed character and story elements no matter how innovative the camera work may be. In this picture, we know virtually nothing about the main character -- where she comes from, what she wants How are we expected to comprehend complex story revelations when half the time we can't even see the girl's face?
By emphasizing style over content, Kentis has sacrificed drama and effective storytelling. Hitchcock fared better back in with his experiment some would say failed experiment with extremely long takes, "Rope. Of course, he never made another film this way again, and for good reason: 1.
Editing is what separates movies from theater. It's an essential process that allows a filmmaker to creatively shape a story and actors' performances. Miracles can be worked in the cutting room. Scenes that don't work can be re-worked or removed.
Performances can be strengthened and improved. Pacing can be improved. Suspense can be built. The camera remains always close to Sarah, sometimes almost resting on her shoulder, and what's impressive is Olsen's ability to sustain that kind of intense on-cam scrutiny and stay convincingly in character. She has a pretty face, expressive and delicate, and carefully modulates her performance: not overacting, not mugging, not trying to sell us on anything.
Some of her best moments communicate silent terror. The "Silent House" is her family's summer home, quite large, three floors, with a seemingly unlimited number of doors located at right angles to other doors, so that in another world, this would be a good location for a slapstick farce. There's also an unreasonably high number of closet doors and doors opening into staircases.
It's daylight, but window boards make it pitch black inside. They carry bright lamps. Left alone, she begins to hear things. Tappings, squeakings, scuttlings, breathings, creakings, moanings, clickings. This house embodies a full rhythm section. Creeping through the dark, she finds her dad again, and then Uncle Peter leaves for a while and things get really heavy.
The secret of the plot is revealed to be unexpectedly fraught, and a surrealistic element enters with bodies in bathtubs and a toilet mounted vertically on a wall and dripping a stream of blood.
Instead, they had to subject the audio to rigorous editing and mixing. They also didn't rely on a lot of post-production Foley work in the studio since, again, the sounds captured in the actual house were more authentic. Then there was the house itself, which lay beneath the flight path of one of the busiest landing strips at LaGuardia Airport. Sound proofing the house was easy enough but, as a direct result, dampened the acoustics of the rooms.
There is very little soundtrack present throughout the film, the most you hear of it is during the opening and closing credits. Even though this is the first film released starring Elizabeth Olsen , this was the third film she made after Martha Marcy May Marlene Rope and Russian Ark , which are both also single take films, along with the home invasion thriller The Strangers , all served as inspiration for this film.
Laura Lau was immediately struck by the Uruguayan original when she saw it. She then saw it again and started writing the script immediately after that, referring to her memory of what she'd seen rather than a written screenplay.
The house used in the film was completely empty prior to filming and was kitted out exactly to the filmmakers' specifications.
Spoilers The trivia items below may give away important plot points. While writing the script for the film, Laura Lau did extensive research on childhood sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from psychological trauma.
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