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November 03, 2016

Denver Film Festival: Lily Lane

Liliom Osveny
Bence Fliegauf - 2016
Films Boutique

The concept may be a bit timeworn, a narrative about an internal journey simultaneous to a young boy's travels between several family homes. The Hungarian filmmaker, Bence Fliegauf, also provides a visual correlative with shifts in the visual video imagery, ranging from low-res black and white to hi-def color.

The story, as such, is the odyssey of seven year old Dani, and his mother, Rebeka. Rebeka tells Dani "fairy tales" about a fairy and a hunter, possibly herself and her estranged husband, and a stuffed and mounted fox that appears to be reanimated at night. Dani is full of questions about life and death, and the nature of the universe.

One critic has described Lily Lane as reminiscent of both Terrence Malick and Andrei Tarkovsky, though in some ways more abstract. One way Fliegauf undercuts the drama is by having the conversations between Rebekah and her husband play out as online conversations, with the camera focused on Rebekah's computer screen. The one truly emotional scene is when Rebekah screams and tosses most of the belongings from her childhood home out of a window.

The casualness of the pacing helps create a dreamlike quality. There are moments of realism as when Dani contemplates the aged body of a woman at a public swimming pool. In an interview, Fliegauf has stated that the inspiration for Lily Lane came out of conversations with his own son, asking similar questions about life and death. It should also be noted that Lily Lane in a real location in the Buda Hills of Budapest.

There is some sense of resolution at the end of the film, where Rebekah and Dani have a place to call home. And yet, in learning about Rebekah own relationship with her parents, there are lingering questions regarding the insular relationship of mother and son here.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at November 3, 2016 07:19 AM