I won't claim to understand all of the references and lines in this sonnet but it is clear that the writer is thinking big and thinking classically on how beautiful his subject is. He compares the subject to classical figures, suggests that the bounty of spring time growth is nothing compared to the subject – all of these things. It is not the most gripping of sonnets and I am honest that I found it hard to get into the rhythm of it. In the short film it is very much delivered as a piece of thought, mostly done in narration save for the last line, which is spoken by the actress whom we have been followed as she makes her way around a stone garden.
The stillness of the stone garden and the sense of wonder that the actress manages to convey as she walks around it, matches her delivery in the narration. In previous Sonnet Project films I have tended to like the ones where the actor silently moves around while the sonnet is read in narration, but here it works because it is consistent and the various bits fit tonally even if they remain separate till the end. Fleck holds the attention and manages to reduce the annoyance factor of the gliding of wondrous hands over stone – she does a lot with her face and also her narration that makes this work.
Technically I am pretty sure it was done in just one take and, although the camera is of course not perfectly steady, I thought it was a pretty good hand-held job considering it was one take and also had lots of fluid movement around the sculptures and actress, all done walking on stone. Not an amazing film, but nice delivery of the sonnet in a way that is thoughtful and peaceful in its consideration.
The stillness of the stone garden and the sense of wonder that the actress manages to convey as she walks around it, matches her delivery in the narration. In previous Sonnet Project films I have tended to like the ones where the actor silently moves around while the sonnet is read in narration, but here it works because it is consistent and the various bits fit tonally even if they remain separate till the end. Fleck holds the attention and manages to reduce the annoyance factor of the gliding of wondrous hands over stone – she does a lot with her face and also her narration that makes this work.
Technically I am pretty sure it was done in just one take and, although the camera is of course not perfectly steady, I thought it was a pretty good hand-held job considering it was one take and also had lots of fluid movement around the sculptures and actress, all done walking on stone. Not an amazing film, but nice delivery of the sonnet in a way that is thoughtful and peaceful in its consideration.