Marco Piana's short film "The Sexton's Wife" tells a story of fate, commitment, and the ultimate question of human life: What shall I do? The young daughter of a sexton in New England has promised her dying father to marry his successor, who turns out to be an old and cold-hearted man. A winter storm offers a change of life, when a handsome young post officer and his assistant ask for shelter.
From the point of narration, the movie plays with motifs from the genres of horror, mystery and suspense, thus deliberately leading the viewer into state of bafflement. The movie is beautifully shot, offering the audience a unique aesthetics, almost as if it is a sequence of still lifes and portraits by Vermeer or Caravaggio.
The atmosphere in the sexton's cottage is tense, when the visitors arrive. Each actor's performance contributes to this tension convincingly, especially when their faces tell the story. In those moments, words seem to be superfluous. The opening scene sets the tone for the condensed story to unfold: The sexton's wife is knitting with care, as if she is weaving her own thread of life.
It is rare that a short film is so elaborate and technically well made, thus differing from an ambitious feature film only in length.
From the point of narration, the movie plays with motifs from the genres of horror, mystery and suspense, thus deliberately leading the viewer into state of bafflement. The movie is beautifully shot, offering the audience a unique aesthetics, almost as if it is a sequence of still lifes and portraits by Vermeer or Caravaggio.
The atmosphere in the sexton's cottage is tense, when the visitors arrive. Each actor's performance contributes to this tension convincingly, especially when their faces tell the story. In those moments, words seem to be superfluous. The opening scene sets the tone for the condensed story to unfold: The sexton's wife is knitting with care, as if she is weaving her own thread of life.
It is rare that a short film is so elaborate and technically well made, thus differing from an ambitious feature film only in length.