An Oversimplification of Her Beauty Page #5

Synopsis: A quixotic artist hypothesizes about why he feels bad when a mystery girl stands him up. The event prompts him to ask: what's the content of a momentary feeling? Is it the sum of your experiences? And, perhaps more importantly, are your experiences the sum of you?
Director(s): Terence Nance
Production: Variance Films
  1 win & 2 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.2
Metacritic:
74
Rotten Tomatoes:
81%
Year:
2012
84 min
$42,308
Website
216 Views


As explained in the film,

especially that conversation at the end,

it's just, like, really

a rumination on

how relationships

or how each relationship

is so intricately

defined by the

circumstances around it.

At times.

Nothing.

So...

No, I felt uncomfortable because

certain private

interactions were publicized,

and mainly from

one point of view.

If we both got to have

our little commentary,

a little dual-screen

action,

it would have been

a different story.

And it's your film, that's fine.

But it was like my life

put on screen to

your music.

It's apparent to me that

you make movies about your life.

No, everyone doesn't.

You feel bad?

That's true.

The only problem is that

your truth will never

make you feel bad.

Hopefully.

But it's definite.

It's a definite fact that

everyone has their own truths.

And that's the eternal

cause of conflict,

and it's not really negotiable.

Like, everyone sees the world

through their own eyes,

so to see it through

someone else's eyes,

but still have it

be an experience that

you remember is a jarring

experience sometimes

if it doesn't coalesce

into my truth.

Is it?

Is

coming to theaters this fall.

Oh!

Your silence in regards

to your feelings was not absolute.

On two or three occasions you

did write her short-form poetry,

mostly sent via text message,

saying things like...

"I want to

speak to you in a languae

"that only you understan"

And...

"Where on Earth

can you tell the truth

"without negative consequences?

"Esoteric and ultimately

meaningless, I know."

Before making the film,

you did write r one rather loaded letter.

In it, you reveal that

when you leave her prese,

you stare at your feet

while you walk.

She said

she liked it quite a bit,

but has not replied.

Obviously, with things

such as mail,

the gesture is more loaded

than the content.

B, the second effect

of this behavioral mask

and assumed ambivalence is also

something that has not happened.

It is that

you almost never inquire

as to the nature of her

relationships with other men.

This leaves you to infer that she is

as flirtatios and intimate with you

as she is with

her other male friends.

So, you may

or may not be special.

Maybe she saw you stumbl.

The third happening is that one

evening she sent you a message.

It read,

"I think I love you?"

Question mark.

"I know I love you,"

was the response that immediately

jumped inside my mouth.

But instead, because

you wanted to maintain

your facade of

even-keeled ambivalence,

you did not immediately reply.

You waited.

She called you.

You missed the call.

Of course

you telephone her back.

Hey.

She said she had to get on

the subway and couldn't talk.

Nothing more was said about it.

So, you did your best to believe

that it was a lighthearted,

humorous transmission.

What is this acting?

What am I doing,

acting-wise?

Your just enjoying my company.

Oh, so I'm enjoying

your company.

Like when I tell you

bedtime stories and stuff.

You tell me bedtime stories?

Pretend like we're in bed.

Oh. Okay. Tell me one.

This feels like we're at home.

This does feel like we're at

home in Union Square Park.

Really?

It does.

You just got to tell me

something about you.

No, that doesn't feel like home.

You got to tell me a

story about something.

Like the stars?

That's not a star. It's a plane.

That's a star!

How do you go about...

Kissing someone?

You don't head-bump, eh?

You make your lips available.

So, you like...

You go 80% of the way,

and let them go 20%.

Right?

I go 80, you go 20.

Note one,

as of the completion of the short film

How Would You Feel?

had yet to create a film

illustrating her perspective.

You assume she had not

because of her full-timeb

and active social life.

After a few years

of waiting for her film,

you took matters

into your own hands.

The following is a trailer

for the resulting film.

A lot of stuff over here.

What kind of stuff?

A whole lot of stuff.

Stuff like this.

See that?

No Speak softly.

I'm learning how to speak softl.

What are you guys trying to...

Thank you.

This is your first film.

I think, yeah,

it's your first film.

And you are gonna,

you're going to make more after, I think.

What's the name

of this film gonna be?

First, there was the void.

A temporary void that lasted

between two and three weeks.

The void was preceded

by an explosion.

The story begins

either after the void,

or in the middle of

the explosion.

You cannot remember whic.

You fell in love

with her in 2001.

The last time you saw her

you said goodbye,

and left her in her

in a third-floor dorm ro.

You broke into tears when you

arrived at the second floor.

By the time you left the building,

your eyes were swollen shut

and your sinuses

filled with mucus.

While making the 15-hour trip home,

you saw an ext off the highway

with her first, last,

and middle name on it.

Then, there was the explosion.

After or during the explosion,

you fell in love with her

during the summer of 200.

You expressed this by giving her

a flower made of a gum wrapper.

You never chew gum.

Sometime after then

and before now,

she became very close to

you in a romantic way.

The two of you felt a mutual

urge to build a life together.

During the fallout

of the explosion,

you re-united with her

in 2004.

You had kept a picture of her

as a child in your wallet

for several years as a teenager.

When you later fell in love,

you noticed the picture was gone.

The Universe decided that you did

not need the picture anymore.

You moved to South Africa

in 2005, fell in love tw.

Hey, don't make fun of me.

Of course,

given the fallout of the explosion,

she fell out of love.

Maybe not so much

because of the explosion,

but because of,

well, you don't know.

She fell out of love

and in love with her,

the young lady,

enter stage left.

And she was with him.

And she was with him.

And she was with him.

And she was with her.

And she lived on the

other side of the world.

And she lived on the

other side of the world.

And you were with this movie.

So, in March of 2006,

you made the movie.

A shorter version of it that

did not allude to the fact...

...that it was true.

You showed volumes one through three,

to be exact.

You did not tell her that the

film was about you and her

when you all were making it,

but you thought she may

have already known.

When you screened the film

for about 100 people,

they did not know that

the film was a retelling

of the story of you and her.

You hoped only she would notice.

That the film would talk to her.

And only her.

The following letter was written t

by Terenc in the summer of 2006.

It was written and sent a few

weeks after the screening of

How Would You Feel?

The day afte told Terence

she was ending her exclue

romantic relationship.

June 14th,

2006, 5:
27 p.m.

Remember how you told me

that you met this new guy

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Terence Nance

Terence Nance is an American artist, musician and film director from Dallas, Texas. Nance graduated from New York University where he studied visual art. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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