Woman of the Photographs

Self-reflexivity in cinema is nothing new.  In fact, it’s at work in every piece of art whether the audience is consciously aware of it or not.   But the line between reality and our perceived version of ourselves has never been thinner thanks to social media and the digital revolution.  Takeshi Kushida’s Woman of the Photographsapproaches the dichotomy of this illusory state of being with an equally fuzzy lens, making a case for revealing our true selves while existing in a hyper-stylized artistic creation.

 Quietly ensconced in his studio, a photographer ekes out a living by retouching glamour shots of women for prospective matchmaking websites.  But his chance meeting with an influencer changes their lives after untouched photographs of her accidental injuries create a big boost in followers.  Their relationship develops into a co-dependency in which both have an opportunity for escape from their self-created cocoons.

 

Kushida’s film is quite late to the game when it comes to commenting on the psychological dangers of social media.  So it’s a relief that Woman of the Photographs takes a meandering path to get where it’s going.  With minimal dialogue and striking cinematography, reality is slightly skewed and emotionally barren, as if characters are all suffering from digital PTSD.  It comes dangerously close to empty pretension: part Kubrick, part Lynch, part Snap Chat.   But, like a retouched image, as the layers beneath are revealed the picture as a whole becomes much more interesting.

 

There’s a certain Cronenberg connection as it relates to the film’s central “wound fetish.”  And if peeling scabs is a big turn off, certainly one could qualify this as a horror film.  But Woman of the Photographs doesn’t fit comfortably into any genre, other than the general ties that bind us all together.  And, in the end, it’s that humanist perspective that makes it so accessible almost despite itself.  

 

Epic Pictures Blu-ray release is picture-perfect to look at and well-rounded with extras including interviews and an earlier short film from the same filmmaking team.