Quicksilver Collides
For this film I was inspired by a concept we discussed in class when reading The Scarlett Letter. This was the dynamic of the power triangle in which two men (in The Scarlett Letter it is Chillingworth and Dimmesdale) are brought close together because of their obsession with a woman. In Quicksilver Collides I reversed the genders involved in the triangle concept so that two women are united through their mutual love of a man. This is emphasized the most in Colby’s flashback where she retreats in her mind to the romance she had and the other woman’s hand comes across screen and intrudes upon her sacred moment. The woman is in her head. Colby does not take her anger out on the man but rather attempts to gain revenge through the other woman. Quicksilver is an element mentioned frequently in alchemical philosophy, personified as mischievous with transformative qualities. In this film the three characters come together and create an entirely new force. This force manifests itself through unjustified violence. The man gets rid of the two women in order to restore the delicate balance of his universe. He becomes the perverse adult within the deployment of sexuality and Colby personifies the hysterical woman. The church bells ring as an ironic gesture to highlight the injustice of what the man has done. He is not concerned with the rules of society that would normally confine him, because he can hide in his bathtub (unclean) and not face any consequences for what he has done. The process of shooting the film was intensified by the mood of the script. It was shot over 4 nights and a lot of time was spent creating atmosphere and chemistry between the characters. This wasn’t too difficult because they were all friends. The set design, particularly the bathroom, was meant to reflect the man’s egocentric and insane mind. The last element I put in the script was the idea of fate. The man does Tarot and the last shot is his fortune for the two women. It is left ambiguous as to whether he saw the card and decided to kill them or whether he was unaware of the card when he made his decision. Rather than take responsibility for his power he places it in the hands of an unseen higher power.
