Lou Lou Lives Here

01:12

thomas brown

Lou-Lou Lives Here is an abstract drama. It centres round a young girl who turns out in the end to actually be a dog. It is clever, because the director has injected dog-like nuances in the girl's behaviour such as licking a wound on her knee and runs up to a dead rabbit, and is obviously interested in it.

It is shot in black and white, and makes use of blurred imagery and strange transitions. For example when the van owner who may be the owner of the dog or a paedophile approaches Lou-Lou it cuts between a blurred image of his face and an ECU of the dog growling and barking, sometimes in slow motion. The black and white is not sharp, which lends it an eerie feel.

The sound during the aforementioned sequence is quite bizarre. The mans' voice is slowed down, to mimic how a dog would hear it.

The relationship between the dog and the young girl is quite mysterious, and is never fully explained. On the first time of watching, it was apparent during one of the end shots, where there is a transition between the dog and the young girl running, that the girl is the dog, and was the dog all along. However, this was very strange, and it took a second time of watching to fully comprehend the ending.
There are a few shots in the film which are totally bizarre, such as the roadside scarecrow, being blown about by a savage wind. Although it is only a point of curiosity for the dog, the audience finds it a more foreboding figure. The use of lighting in that shot is particularly weird, with a high contrast lighting scheme. The man appears after the scarecrow is shown, so it could be a subtle hint at what is to come.

The music during the opening is a melancholic piano. Although the piano is slow and saddening, there is a sinister undercurrent to it. The piano continues during the middle of the film, creating tension and threat when the man is shown in his van. The piano uses high notes, rather than atypical deep throbbing notes, which are normally used to create menace. The use of high notes gives a music box feel to it, which ties in with the depiction of a paedophile attracting a child.
The strange nature of the film could be perceived as a turn off, but is curious because of its strangeness. The filming and feel of it is unorthodox, and the use of bizarre lighting and an even more bizarre story and main character makes it stand out in the mind. I could directly take inspiration from it, it is easy to make a completely outlandish film, but it might not necessarily say anything, just be a novelty. It is important to create some originality, rather than tie a load of cliches together to make something original, and in this way, Lou-Lou Lives Here is inspirational.

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