Fog Around August Review: A Man Can Be Vulnerable with A Woman

REVIEW: by Peter Nichols | 3 of 5 Stars

Logline
Fog Around August is an intimate look at a young man’s desires, or the lack thereof. It is also about a couple coming to terms with the others weaknesses or shortcomings.

Introduction
Fog Around August is all shot on 16mm. It is also virtually shot in one take. You know like Sam Mendes shot the British War Drama film 1917 (2019). I personally like material shot on film, it always reminds me of the original medium. Plus, it add a visual depth to the story – it makes it relatable. It then draws in the audience as a participating viewer. It creates good engagement. Another beauty of Fog Around August is its simplicity. I found myself watching it twice, before I realized there was no “FADE IN” or “FADE OUT.” Fog Around August is a short film that deals with the vulnerability of a man, and it has been doing its festivals run for over a year now.

The Review
The experience that film offers us can be intensely involving, Fog Around August draw us in or immerse us. There are no big heart breaks in Fog Around August. But, hang on, it is emotionally deep and very sensitive. Its film form presents a system where the artwork and the person’s or actors experiencing it on the viewers behalf depend on each other. It presents the quality of intimacy, privacy, realization and the need to commit. The film dramatically presents elements of causality, time and space to elaborate and deepen vulnerability and sensitivity. These are scary topics for men. I found the film like a magnifying glass or light, elaborating or shining bright on my own persona, compelling me, (and, it will compel you too) to consider the intimate times we lost, and how they were lost. It is safe to have a man bare his intimate thought to a woman, who do understand vulnerability.

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The use of the words Fog and August, are deliberate. The filmmaker is drawing our attention to metaphors in nature. He uses these to depict certain elements in the narrative. First it is shot on 16mm film, and its fuzziness represents male vulnerability. That premise highlights a nebulous emotion or a common male vulnerability. The man (played Cornelius Boeder) is disconnected, but he is also in denial of it. He is a man who doesn’t enjoy sleeping with his partner, but smokes away their quality time, and this makes his partner frustrated. Until she, or his partner (played by Valentina Torressi) presses him for a reason. He doesn’t see it at first, or pretends he doesn’t, he eventually empties himself. She call him out kindly, and he eventually obliges after resisting initially. Fog Around August is freeing, intimate, questioning, reasonable and revoltingly kind.

Fog Around August puts the viewer or audience in a position to see how film form guides the audiences activity. Why is she frustrated? Or why is he deflecting? Why is their relationship without sex. As a film art, Fog Around August allows the free flow of human expression or human feelings. It allows emotion play a large role in our experience of film form. The emotions represented within the film interacts as parts of the film total system. The whole film is heavily emotional, and carries itself very well through the end. It resolves beautifully.

I do think the middle of the narrative rested on heavy dialogue, more than on a visual language. The narrative did kick off and end with a strong visual language. I think that the actors bounced of each other very well, especially with the use of rests.

The shot tracks from night to day, and right to left, from bedroom to living room. As the couple enter back into the apartment. they settle in a romantic cuddle on the sofa. It is a one-shot film narrative with a splendid feeling of ease.

Conclusion
Fog Around August is an art film. This paragraph will finalize the review, and conclude if it is good entertainment or not. The choice here is a personal one, and it should read like such. It should lead the audience to want to watch the film or not to watch the film.

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