Man in the Box

 https://vimeo.com/222508638/description

Man in the box has no music and no real dialogue, the director relies on the use of visual cues by the actor and ambient diegetic sounds to tell the story.

Opening sequence 

The film opens on a man in pyjamas and a dressing gown who appears to be at home sitting back in a chair he is at first looking up touching his face and gives an exhale through his nose, as though he is just finishing a thought as we join him in the room

He leans forward and the scene cuts to see an over the shoulder shot of a collection of objects on the floor at his feet, there is close up shots allowing us to explore the collection of photo albums, books a brass horn, an accordion and a cardboard box. 

Based on the mans perceived age and the fact the photos are in black and white, it can be assumed that this is a box objects that are memories from his life.

There are three monochrome images in front of the albums. 

The man wistfully uses his finger to stroke a gold band on his left ring finger and as he shifts himself from his chair into a cross legged position on the floor we see him interact with the photographs, first using his index finger to stroke the image of a woman and baby I took to be his late wife. He turns over the photographs and although the audience don’t get to see what on the reverse, we see him reading a caption or perhaps a date.

He packs all of the memories away into the cardboard box, and as he stands up and lifts it up we can see immediately in the ease that he’s able to lift it and in his facial expression that something isn’t right.

He opens the now empty box and turns it upside down; at first you can see his eyes look up in though and slight hesitation but he quickly decides to place the box over his head as the scene goes to black and the title is shown“The Man in the Box”.

Scene 2: The Beach 

As the box comes off our protagonists head we can see he’s been transported to a beach, he looks around and gives a cheery “wehey” obviously happy to be there. We can hear the waves crashing and he is once more sitting cross legged in the sand in front of a wall with the cardboard box to his left and a brightly coloured children’s bucket and spade to his right.

The cardboard box that once contained a collection of memories has transported the old man back to a time in his past and in this scene I believe he’s been placed into a memory from his childhood

He begins using the spade to shovel sand into the bucket, its clear he’s attempting to make a sand castle. As he lifts the bucket the dry sand falls out from inside and the man looks frustrated, he tries again to fill the bucket but the same happens again.

Sand castles can only be constructed with wet sand and that’s something that an adult man would know, but not necessarily a child.

This sequence makes me think that not only has the box transported our man to a time in his past but has also given him the same mind and thought process he had at the time he made the memory

He promptly gives up and places the box over his head as the scene fades to black

Scene 3: The Park Bench 

As the box comes down we hear a bird chirping and the sound of flowing water, the man looks around and smiles with the same excitement he showed after he was transported to the beach.

We see he’s sat on a bench in a field/park overlooking a river and we begin to hear wind chimes, the man checks his watch and decides it’s time to go, placing the box over his head.

Scene 4: The Trees 

The box comes off his head and this time he’s standing in amongst trees but we can still hear the chimes carried over from the park, this tells us that they are not part of the previous scene and are instead travelling with our character, either in his mind or as part of the ‘magic’ that allows him to explore his memories in this way. He walks around the small wooded area and inspects the branches of the tree as well as the grass on the ground; I believe he’s trying to figure out if and how it can be real.

The scene cuts to a close up of the cardboard portal and we see the man out of focus walking up to one of the trees. This is the very last time we see the cardboard box in the film. 

We cut back to him having climbed a few feet of the ground and sways as he shakes the tree trunk he’s grasping before jumping down to the ground

For me, this again reads as the behaviour and curiosity of a child further leading me to believe that the box puts him into the mindset of whatever time of his life he’s remembering.

Scene 5: The Unraveling 

Still in the woods we can see the old man pull his dressing gown tighter over himself as if he’s cold. This is the critical point where the illusion starts to fade.

As he exits the area of trees the camera cuts to a shot of the shoulder of a denim jacket facing our main character in the distance.

This shot shows us the old man from the perspective of another character and from here we can start to see him looking around appearing confused perhaps about where he is or how he got there, we again hear the wind chimes.

The 2 characters approach each other and the denim jack is placed around the old man showing a relationship between the characters; This is likely a son who’s found his father outdoors and is giving his jacket for warmth

We then enter a sequence of rapid shots circling the old man and a high pitched white noise begins playing, he’s visibly distressed and keeps closing his eyes and has the jacket wrapped tight around him, during the sequence we see the son on the phone and as he comforts the old man with a rub on the shoulder we cut back to our protagonist shivering, his hands cupping a mug wrapped in a blanket in his chair that we first met him in, we see a pair of hands comfort him, he is safe.