Rendezvous by Hiroki Utsunomiya

From its opening scene, the combination of camera movement, music and acting gives “Big Break” an early thumbs up and creates a hook for the audience to delve into (as the director says); this hyper realistic comedy that deals with the satyr of the film industry, this is not something new to Dicle Ozcer who herself comes from both worlds (acting/directing) the thing that allowed her to excel in her work.

Acting wise, Brianna Ripkowski playing the role of (Deena); a young actress struggling to have her break in the film industry showed great skills in conveying the stress and anxiety of being in such a realm, add to that her ability to separate and show us a totally different character between her acting in the short film as Deena, and in the movie where she plays the role of the nurse is something very tricky and even the best of actors cannot accomplish at times.

As for the genre and the script, going for a comedy is always a challenge because it is well known that it’s easier to make people cry than to make them laugh, again Ozcer skillfully planted a smile on our faces without being cheesy or vulgar with her well-crafted dialogues that was full with unexpected surprises.

Technically, the high key lighting of the film was very natural and clear, which served perfectly its purpose in not distracting the viewer from the acting and dialogues that made up the excellence of the film. The same applies to the style of editing, which also was very basic and straightforward. Again “Big Break” is the kind of films that rely mainly on the quality of its script and acting, thus both lighting and editing become a support and not the main focus. As for the music, Ozcer’s choices could have been a bit different in a sense that she could have relied more on diegetic sounds in certain instances, very simple tracks are used which could be her choice again in order to just keep the main focus on the events happening inside the frame. The directing style reflects clearly the influence that the theater world has on Ozcer, be it how the actors interact or how the scenes relate to one another, it reminds us George Melies and the early days of cinema were the frame was like a stage and actors would come on stage and act.

Finally it is a film worth watching and deserves all the awards and nominations it has received, we will be waiting eagerly to see what Ozcer will give us next.

N.Khouri Ph.D

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