Director’s Notes - Annalise Patterson
“I see From Where I’m Standing as a kind of Chekhovian character study in which an unexpected event – the arrival of geese next door, and the neighbour’s response to this – forces a young couple to face the fact that they have very different views of the world, and of how they should behave in it.
The film is based on a true story and I wanted to explore what happens when a lover sees a weakness or character flaw in their beloved and how they deal with this disappointment. The lover must make a decision to either let love fail, or to justify their lover’s behaviour for the sake of holding onto the relationship.
At the film’s end it is up to the audience to make what they will of each character’s choices. But I rather hope that they will be left wondering about the couple’s future together, and what this means to their relationship.
I sae buried in From Where I’m Standing a ‘black fairy tale’. Like any good fable this journey involves wish-fulfilment, desire and transformation, all haunted by the insistent presence of a phantom which in this case is the form of the brutish neighbour. The story is very small and simple but reflects on the universal difficulties faced by a young couple to keep love alive.
Juliet’s persistent watchfulness throughout the film makes her an observer, and turns us into observers too. It was my intention for Juliet to be the film’s heart, so that while it is Martin who has most of the physical action, it is her with which we make a sympathetic visual identification.
I wanted the world of the film to be subtley stylised, slightly heightened reality. I employed the production design and the cold quality of the film’s light, together with the actors’ performance style to create this effect.
The film’s music, Anonyme La Folia, is by internationally acclaimed Spanish composer and musician Jordi Savall. The music is intended to lend a magical quality to the arrival of the geese, but is also evocative of the formal and controlled style of medieval dance for which it was originally played.
The distinctive musical style has a haunting and magical quality that I felt perfectly suited From Where I’m Standing which is a story about controlled and controlling passions.”
