I just watched the perfect movie. Cashback was something I’d downloaded on a whim a few months back, and finally got around to watching tonight after a couple of failed episodes of The Mighty Boosh, and it left me wishing I’d written the entire thing down, just so I could take a piece of beautiful dialogue with me, or taken screen shots of the entire movie to hang on my walls, to remind myself that beauty can be found in the most modest and unassuming places.
It’s filmed mostly in the stark, fluorescent simplicity of a supermarket in the middle of winter in England; hardly the most picturesque of settings, yet the cinematography is so fluid, effortlessly seaming from one location to another. Watch solely for the astounding effect of Ben going from standing in a doorway to lying in his bed, without appearing to move at all. Oh, and Ben has the ability to stop time and examine the world around him – one standout scene, ironically the most graphic and likely to turn me off, was probably one of the most beautiful and strikingly memorable:
“I read once about a woman whose secret fantasy was to have an affair with an artist. She thought he would really see her. He would see every curve, every line, every indentation, and love them all because they were part of the beauty that made her unique.”
This definitely made me want to meet an artist of my own :)
I can’t get over the beauty of this film. Its starting point revolves around something we’ve all experienced: insomnia, break-ups, dead-end jobs entirely devoid of significance. I adore how these commonplace nothings are used to explore something personal; internal monologues, a mind’s inability to remain at rest, and living in frozen seconds to explore the beauty of everyday life. I could watch this time and time again and never tire of the magical blend of fantasy, art, amazing photography and heartfelt emotion tied into an everyday life we can all relate to.
“Once upon a time, I wanted to know what love was. Love is there if you want it to be. You just have to see that it’s wrapped in beauty and hidden away in between the seconds of your life. If you don’t stop for a minute, you might miss it.”
Huge recommendation.
