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This short by Sandra Goldbacher was made three years before she directed her acclaimed first feature film, The Governess (1998).
Piccadilly Circus by Night (1995) is a highly stylised tale of a young Polish
woman, Tanya (Emma Bird), who comes to London as an au pair, hoping to meet up and stay with
her best friend, a successful model. Tanya regularly sends postcards to her
mother, recounting her experiences in the city. However, her situation
deteriorates as her best friend turns out to be unreliable and unable to provide
her with a place to stay. What's more, she is soon forced to leave the house
where she has been an au pair due to her growing closeness to the father of the
girl she came to look after. We follow Tanya's journey from disappointment to
disappointment, until the end she sits in Piccadilly Circus, alone, with
nowhere to go and wondering what to do next. Anxious not to worry her
mother, she writes in her postcard that she is doing well.
Reflecting her experience in directing commercials, Goldbacher uses an array
of visual tools to contrast Tanya's expectations of London with her actual
experiences. The opening shots of the two best friends having their picture
taken remind us that dreams are sometimes based on little and that friendships
can be ephemeral.
As a transition between sections of the film, each protagonist is shown in
his or her own scene, in slow motion on a dark background, isolating them in
space but also showing that they cannot be to Tanya what she was hoping for,
leaving her alone to deal with her situation. Cinematographer Patrick Duval
envelops the entire film in an orange glow that, along with the exotic musical
track, accentuates the feeling of isolation and strangeness, characteristics
familiar to anyone who has just arrived to a new city hoping to start a new
life.
Piccadilly Circus by Night is a simple story of dreams and the
difficulties that often surface when trying to attain them.
Eric Mahleb
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Complete film (19:18)
