The Lady of the House of Love (Review)
© Selena Xin Jin
The Lady of the House of Love
Director : Selena Xin Jin
Producers : Mitty Wen, Biagio Cilia
Starring Ealia Melersy, Robbie Boyle
Original Score : Suing Han
Runtime : 8 minutes
16:9 - Digital - Color
Language : English
Country : UK
2022
Storyline :
Base on the fairytale story by Angela Carter. A vampire wearing her mother's vintage wedding dress waiting for her true love in her castle. When her first crush has finally arrived, she then facing a tough choice...
© Selena Xin Jin
For this project, the young director, Selena Xin Jin, adapts the tale of Angela Carter in a stylized and sensorial short film. Indeed, the fairy atmosphere is present from the beginning, until the end.
The cinematography in warm colors, carried by an intoxicating music, creates a feeling both wonderful and dramatic.
© Selena Xin Jin
No real dialogues. The image takes over the words.
As Stanley Kubrick said, a cinematographic work is successful when the filmmaker uses the codes of silent cinema to put them at the service of the script. This film evokes this ideology. We witness the art of movement, gestures, bodies. The female character played by Ealia Melersy, is both elegant and terrorizing. She evokes a certain form of sensuality mixed with a demonic side.
© Selena Xin Jin
The male character played by Robbie Boyle, however, is more discreet and fragile. He is dominated. He represents pure love. The dress, a key symbol of story, is sublimated by the light and the choices of the frame. It imposes itself on the image and becomes dangerous. The handling of the staging and the mystery of the characters is similar to Tim Burton's work. We could also mention Interview with the Vampire directed by Neil Jordan.
© Selena Xin Jin
The filmmaker designed a meticulous work and set up a slow rhythm creating tension, hypnosis. A dark tale in which the musical frame accompanies the uncertain steps of the characters, like a Machiavellian dance.
By Hallucinea Film Festival
