NEW DELHI: The film made on the sci-fi love story has taken the entire film industry by surprise in Hollywood.
And this, not merely because of its difficult subject line, but because of the decision of Brin Hill, director of In Your Eyes, to distribute the Joss Whedon-penned romantic drama on Vimeo. The same coincides with the movies’ release in New York. Following the premier at the Tribeca Film Festival, Whedon announced that the film would be distributed via Vimeo for a $5.00 rental fee.
It was a bold announcement, typical of the sci-fi tinged love story which tracks the relationship of Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) and David (Michael Stahl David), two strangers who discover they share the same senses of vision, smell and touch as they go through their very different lives in New Hampshire and New Mexico, respectively.
Full of the clever turns of phrase and of genre to be expected from a script hailing from the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator, the film benefits from the tangible chemistry between its two leads and the sleek way Hill allows their relationship to unfold.
Said Hill, “I had to tell the story of two people, thousands of miles apart, who can experience the world through one another’s senses. The characters interact, but they are not in the same state, much less the same room.”
Given all the unusual elements at play, In Your Eyes could only emerge from Bellwether Studios, where copious creative control is afforded by low budgets and the benevolence of its bosses, Whedon and wife Kai Cole, who last backed the similarly envelope-pushing adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Hill said: “The first time I read the script, I saw the film in two different colour palettes. I knew that I always wanted to identify each environment by a colorscape. It’s much more subtle than, say, a traffic light, but it’s there, and it was there to root them in the ground and know where they are at any given time. Then [there was] the intimacy of camera and having it move a little bit because there is a talking nature to this. It’s about two people who are exploring each other through dialogue, so there’s a challenge of how you keep that energetic. I’d like to think my style lent itself to that really well, but I also was blessed to have Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David. Their dynamic and their chemistry is really, really great, and what makes the film so fun to watch is their discovery of one another.”
