"The Face" is a curious and dark examination of an artist about his artistic creation and also about himself. Is the art he creates goes exactly like he intents it to
be or the final art might become something completely different than expected to the point of loathing himself doing it? In between the thoughts of creation to its final
result many things go through his mind (his inner, his mind) to later on move to the physical world (in this case, a painting of his self-portrait) where he allows
everything to become the real thing but since most artists reach for perfection things might not come to a desired effect and the one presented here goes to extremes to
avoid his art and eventually himself as the story goes along.
Directed by Piotr Studzinski (the only short film he ever made, as far as we know) and starred by accomplished filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski on a rare appearance
as an actor, this short film hits interesting notes while dealing with the theme of an artist struggling with himself during the process of creation and how horrific and
tragic everything is, it really feels like the end of the world to expose something that goes from deep inside of himself because it's never good enough or never translates
exactly like he imagines. Those who manage to overcome those issues are the lucky ones! Writers, filmmakers, musicians, painters, dancers, all art known to men, but many
artists go through similar situations during the creation or presentation of their works and they feel bad, worthless or not good enough because the initial perfect ideal
gets lost or changed on the way.
The genius behind the Colors trilogy is an amazingly interesting actor, quite good-looking too, and he truly conveys the real emotions while facing a disintegration of
his works then later coming to an obsessive and dangerous destruction of himself expressed through his wild rebellion against the mirrors around him which helped him to
create his self-portrait and then he moved on to smash and break them all. But another point comes to mind: does he hate himself or the view of himself after the painting?
Throughout the movie I was suddenly reminded of the main character of Godard's "Le Petit Soldat" during one of his many shared thoughts: "When I look myself in the mirror,
the face I see doesn't match with what I think it's inside". Could the artist really rejecting himself because he can't find ways to paint his real face exactly in the
way he sees it? Or is he struggling to show his real identity? Or a deeper level, like a reverse Dorian Gray where the portrait stays young while he grows old and he can't
accept such fate, he wants something different rather than the nightmare of growing old?
Studzinski's examination on life and art is sublime because it allows viewers to find meaning and explore possible resolutions, even if there is none to be
found. It reaches out for those questions without answering all of them, it can everything I just mentioned or go beyond. And more than just a drama, this is quite a
horror story mostly because of the unexpected reactions from the artist, on a simple careless view you might think he's being haunted by some ghost invisible to
audiences yet it terrifies the heck out of the young man. Kieslowski impressed me a great deal with his acting, pity he never returned for more - he never
did cameos on his films. But taken into account, everybody involved were film students at the time this is a solid and interesting film though the idea might not look
so original in the field of art, it's something that is and will be discussed through ages to come but it's worthy of view and consideration since the junction of
elements does ring truthness and great relevance for life when it comes to situation of communication (what one thinks versus what one says or shows), and for artists it's
must-see, beginners or not. I loved it. 8/10.
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