Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine (2010) is perhaps the film that has most influenced me in drama filmmaking. I have always been drawn to rather bleak films centered on the failure or struggles of relationships and Blue Valentine was one of the first films I saw that truly captured everything I aspired to make myself, (Like Crazy (2011) is another.)
Blue Valentine is a fragmented film about a fragmented marriage. Cianfrance perfectly presents the birth and decay of a relationship and doesn’t hold anything back, creating a rather gruesome piece.
Cianfrance’s techniques and process of making this film is one of the things that drew me in most. To create the true authenticity of the characters he had Gosling, Williams and Wladyka (little Frankie) all live together in the same house, the house they would shoot the present scenes in, during a month shooting gap. He instructed them to make their own ‘family’ home movies to create a truthful family dynamic, and consequently had Williams and Gosling argue and push each other to their limits, creating a frustration and resentment between the actors that reflected the characters feelings.
He also gave the actors a fair bit room to develop the characters themselves which led to some great unscripted moments. For example Cianfrance gave Gosling the task to present Williams with a gift. This happens in a rather lovely scene in which Dean gifts Cindy with the song ‘You and Me’ by Penny and the Quarters. Gosling actually found this song himself for Williams and thus allows the audience to share this intimate moment with the characters and joins us with the pair listening and sharing the song together for the first time.
Another great and perhaps better promoted example of this technique is during the scene where Dean sings and plays his ukulele whilst Cindy tap-dances outside in a dark street. The pair were told by Cianfrance to pick a talent but not to share the talent with the other person, so when Gosling begins to unexpectedly play Williams had no idea and vice-versa.
One last example is when Cindy tells Dean she's pregnant, as he scales the fence on the bridge as a tactic to get her to talk, the only direction Cianfrance gave was for Williams to keep her secret and for Gosling to get her to spill. These unscripted moments create spontaneity and authenticity and it allows the audience that bit closer into their relationship, connecting us further with the characters.
As I mentioned what drew me in about this film’s narrative was the creation and destruction of the relationship, this is shown perfectly in two interlaced sections of past and present tense; a technique I am not always fond of and I find to be an incredible risk.
The past scenes full of love and light is reflected in the camera techniques used. These scenes were shot on film, using a 50mm lens (equivalent of the human eye) and was mainly handheld creating a realistic feel and again allowing the audience to be fully with the characters though their journey.
Contrastingly the present was shot on digital and always using tripods which echoed the artificial and static frustration of the characters stuck in their unhappy life.
Also in the present scenes Dean and Cindy rarely ever share the same frame, isolating the characters in their own space and emphasising their distance and separation, whereas previously they were always shown in the same frame or the shot continued to be completed by the other.
Dean's thoughts during the past scenes heartbreakingly reflect his life shown in the present tense. Dean talks about women settling down into marriage and just picking the best option, ‘they spend their whole lives looking for Prince Charming and they end up marrying the guy who’s going to stick around.’ This is perhaps what happens to Dean and Cindy, Dean here sees himself as Prince Charming and maybe Cindy did too, but it doesn’t turn out that way, Dean is merely the guy who ‘sticks around.’ Dean is presented as almost a hopeless romantic during this period of the film, he wants the perfect movie relationship ‘maybe I’ve seen too many movies.’ One scene in which he discusses love at first sight (regarding Cindy) with a co-worker it harshly mirrors their future relationship ‘I felt like I knew her, I probably don’t right? I felt like I did though.’
Did Dean ever know Cindy? Was Cindy ever truly happy with Dean and see him as her Prince Charming, or did she merely settle for the guy who would stick around? Perhaps in the beginning, but the qualities that appealed to her most are nearly intolerable six years later, she once saw him as the nicest guy she had ever met and now he seems like the weakest.
“You always hurt the ones you love”
