Beyond the Surface of Pretty Obsession
On the surface, Pretty Obsession appeared to simply be another stylish thriller: glossy cinematography, layered characters, and a plot centered on desire teetering into madness. But, much like the characters it sought to portray, the project was much more complex than it appeared on the surface. The film was a juxtaposition of what lay on the surface and what lay beneath. It was not solely defined by what was on screen, but also the challenges the cast and crew faced in the process of creation. The making of Pretty Obsession shined a light on the difference between reel sadness and real despair, and the lengths to which one would go to achieve it.
The Beauty and Breakdown of the Story
Pretty Obsession revolves around the character of Lena who, at the tender age of 24, is a head turner with beauty that sets admiration and envy alike. Both a compliment and a downfall, Lena is caught in the crossfires of illicit atttraction, outer rivalry and inner betrayal. Lena’s romance escalates to a psychological competition, where she battles the inner demons of control and collapse, oscillating between the two.
Lena’s story arc in the movie is that of a transformation — from a dreamer to a woman enduring the suffocating grip of obsession. All supporting characters, rivals as well as lovers, represented different elements of Lena’s psyche such as envy, destruction, adoration, and attraction. It obsession the movie took every opportunity to show. It obsession, and how it distorts ties, leaving bare relations that are not easy to see.
The Actress Who Lived the Weight of Her Role
The woman who played Lena carried her own struggles into the role. At the start of the movie, Lena is emotionally absent due to a breakup and is gaslit and lonely. Reflecting on such a character is like poking a sore wound herself. It was on the set that she was overcome by the character the most. Other movie crew members later reported that Lena during the more grueling body movement scenes wanted no body doubles, and suggested that she wanted the scenes to look as if she was in real pain.
The mental and physical exhaustion was well evident at the end of shooting, where she remarked she needed help in identifying the positive traits within herself. The comments made by the audience in regards to her performance were that it was haunting and disturbing. What the audience is not aware of, is that the haunting and disturbing aspects were uncannily real.
Budgets That Broke Boundaries.
Finances became another hurdle when backing withdraw after the initial financial support that Pretty Obsession was pitched as mid-budget psychological drama that was believed, however, the ‘dramatic’ themed they take part in are never accepted. It doesn’t stop the producers though, they are able to remain in the mid-ish budget. This means they are able to polish the design, change light arrangements in the set, and lose the first and last of the day light.
The budget, however, was the finishing touch to the work of art. It is widely accepted that the audience’s interpretation of the nena’s apartment set is how it represents, the audiences themselves singing the soft song that is hollowing the mind and the soul. Isn’t it ironic, it still leaves the design team wondering how they were able to furnish it with the ‘mere franchise’ of the money.
Illness in the Shadows.
One of the sub cast was writen out from the script after being diagnosed, ‘put to the script’ as a means of expressive art, ‘crazy like a lion’ because of its intended length of time to the lioness. ‘Squised’, shortened and withdrawn form the shriller of the set to the sound tape.His fellow actors and the rest of the crew could see for themselves the true extent of the anguish he experienced in the intervals of the filming. He would go on to say in an interview that he thinks of the movie as a supreme display of torture: ‘I wanted to finish it, even if it meant crawling through.’
Controversies That Spilled Over.
The headline itself, ‘Pretty Obsession,’ created some form of negative structure even before it was released. Many critics claimed that the project was an attempt at romanticizing and glorifying misogynistic relationships. An, ‘older draft of the script, that was leaked, and that featured some suggestive scenes, did nothing to tame the flames. He defended the movie saying that it was supposed to shed light on obsession, not glorifying it at all. This did not really help with the onslaught of critics he had to face through the rest of the festivals the movie was screened in.
The lead actress too was in the eye of the storm. Her co-star had also been a subject of a particular rumor which suggested that for the sake of ‘creating good on-screen chemistry,’ some ‘boundaries were crossed.”Crew Sacrifices Hidden in the Credits
Even the shadow of a spotlight is accompanied by a weight of its own. The cinematographer made use of primitive cameras to track shots because there were no preset rental budgets, and in most cases, would take long and hard to improvise a system of home made tracking shot rigs. She preferred the thrift store in search of the missing pieces to the high fashion labels, restitching her own clothing in order to achieve the characters’ torn chic and otherwise disheveled appearance overnight.
These were not the types of efforts that would get the paps shooting, but they were definitely the efforts that added the unique feel of the film. What the audience perceived as a calculated attempt at minimalism was in actuality the quiet determination of a team, who would simply not lose.
When Reel Emotions Became Real
The disconnection between the on and off screen struggles was striking. Set on unrelenting obsession and its consuming, corrosive nature, the film itself was soaked in the same fervor. Tensions flew in the cast during a shoot that was in their opinion, poorly funded and lasted to long. It was a set of, “Who can keep their cool the longest?” And as a result, chilled tempers added silence that muffled the aftermath of a botched take.
Those same tensions, however, also bled into the film. The rawness was not performed, but rather lived. In a sequence where Lena was scripted to slam a mirror, her reaction was so visceral that the prop shattered. The director decided that the static capture of unrestrained exasperation was worth saving, and thus the scrapped footaged became the centerpiece of the film. It showcased shattered beauty – the image the film was looking for.
The Legacy of Struggle
Critics conquered the energizing aspects and haunting personas of Pretty Obsession the moment it became available. What only a few managed to pick up on was that the praise in the form of barebones depiction, jagged intensity, and all the other aspects that ticked off the struggle checklist, were of lesser value.
As the ‘film’ grew in scope and complexity, it more became more of a collage and a patch up job as evidenced by the lives of the people who crafted it. That said, the line between reel and real became thin as Pretty Obsession was made with a level of devotion that fueled in them the passion to claim the trauma etched. It spurred in them to deliver a stuff of tapes, where unsung the chorus of toil.