Penelope’s Odyssey: Film Form as Meaning

Film theorist/critic David Bordwell once noted that film scholars “know how to make movies mean.” Filmmakers, regardless of their receptiveness to critical interpretations of their work, might find some irony in this locus of the meaning-maker’s identity. Through their choices, filmmakers are the ones who “make movies mean” in the first place. In my film-in-progress, Penelope’s Odyssey, I decided to consciously engage with the post-facto vision of meaningmaking. Employing a purposeful approach to film form, limited dialogue, and minimal narrative-driven action, I “make my movie mean” and make viewers’ interpretive activity requisite to understanding. Penelope’s Odyssey consists of short sections set apart with intertitles that are both precise and elusive (Year One: Settling, Year Ten: Slipping, Year Fifteen: Pushing, etc.). Each section has a distinctive schematic of film technique and visual content, making film form the power source of narrative changes in Penelope’s emotional journey over the twenty years of Odysseus’ absence. One year employs quick straight cuts, another slow fades to black, another superimposes images with dissolves ? establishing a different mood, rhythm, and pace to the passage of time for each year. Penelope’s perspective and world view change: from images filling the frame to ones cropped, reduced, and nearly overwhelmed by a black background; from the domestic sphere to scenes in nature; from point-of-view to omniscience. Close-ups connote intimacy ? or is that claustrophobia? Long shots, a sense of emotional and physical distancing ? or perhaps contemplative ease? By deliberately emphasizing variations of form, I aim viewers’ attention at a highly premeditated, mediated, and intentional space, encouraging reflection and meaning-creation. Ambiguity is inherent in this process, and viewers’ interpretations may result in alternative narrative conclusions. I made my own meaning out of Penelope’s twenty years, and I actively offer the same option to my viewers.