The Substance:
The Substance has a science fiction plot following the fading star Elisabeth Sparkle played by Demi Moore. The movie opens on a shot of the ground, in which a Hollywood star is added for Elisabeth. Following shots of its construction, we see Elisabeth in the continued top shot receiving attention for the star from paparazzi. Following edits cut to people gazing upon the star, but eventually it becomes an empty space, and a small crack forms. The star then suffers rain and the cracks become bigger, before returning to a complete lack of attention. The star then suffers through a snowy winter, followed by a person pushing a shopping cart over it. The final segment involves a guy dropping a burger on the star, making a huge mess and leaving it dirty along with its cracks. The continuous top shot is used to represent the state of Elisabeth's career at different points. The star's formation covers her building her career, all the subsequent attention is made from her success, then she begins to fade away into a lesser known star, where the most attention she can receive is a metaphorical stain on her career, and a literal stain on her star. The top shot has the star crack more as it goes on which could represent her outside of her career, becoming worse in nearly every conceivable angle due to the effect on her star status.
Uncut Gems:
Despite the story revolving around a jewelry salesman in New York, the movie opens on a mine in Ethiopia. We see men carrying a guy whose leg is bleeding heavily with bone sticking out, a likely result of a mining incident. A giant crowd forms around him with rugged African miners and cleaner workers, likely those in charge of the mine, and chaos ensues between all parties. Two miners head in to the mine during this chaos, progressing through until they unearth a gem, delicately picking it out. As they hold the gem, the camera flies through the gem and into a dreamy abstract landscape where opening credits play. As the credits end, this landscape becomes a colonoscopy, which is then revealed to be that of the main character's Howie. The peculiar choice with the opening to Uncut Gems is how it touches on an idea that is mostly ignored through the film's runtime, which is due to the film incorporating the main character's perspective. Between the scene in the mine being the start to the colonoscopy and the mining incident, the film comments on the workers who suffer daily just to provide for the jewelry and diamond industry. While the gem they unearth does appear later within the movie, the workers hold no narrative significance further than unveiling said gem. Ignoring this builds on the selfishness of the main character, with only one line later referencing Ethiopian working conditions where a character asks how much Howie, the main character as played by Adam Sandler, paid for the jewel, admitting it is for a much smaller price than he is asking for.
Anatomy of a Fall:
Justine Triet's Academy Award-winning film begins on numerous pictures, with little to hint at their relation at first, or any sort of pattern to the cuts between each other. As the pictures progress it's slowly developed that the photos are those of the main character played by Sandra Huller. As the pictures reach their climax, two other figures appear, the first being her husband, who dies early into the film. The second does not show his face, but given the smaller size, similar hair, and the fact that the son plays piano, it's evident the son is the last photo shown. The progression of the pictures, in hindsight, is reflective of the movie's progression, first calling into question who Huller's character is, then her relationship with her husband, and ending with the weight of the film on the son, which is why his picture contains the title card. By putting apart the pictures in dissonant paces, it establishes the chaos within this family dynamic, but it also intentionally fails to portray the character traits of the family. The motive behind this decision is to place you similar to the jury of the titular trial, leaving gaps in logic for both sides of the debate, and by leaving this open question on who they really are, it maintains the question on what truly happened.
Short summaries:
The Substance:
Provides a symbol to represent the fading star of the main character.
Uncut Gems:
Plays out a scene which is mostly ignored outside of a "MacGuffin" to show the selfish perspective of the main character.
Anatomy of a Fall:
Develops the ambiguous dynamic of the family at the center of the story.
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