Nightwalking - A Short Film Indebted to Ligotti

T

Thamiel

Mannikin
I wrote and acted in a short film that was heavily inspired by Ligotti, called Nightwalking. I had several talented filmmakers collaborate on the work, which was finally realized during the middle of covid. Because of both the state of the world at the time, and density & difficulty of the material, not much became of it other than a few screenings. It is not an adaption or pastiche of Ligotti's work, but an original piece that owes everything to the tone, timbre, and ethos of his oeuvre as I have drawn from it.

Nightwalking charts the journey of Mr. Noone, an isolated and detached office worker. Attempting to deal with a personal loss, Noone begins long rambling night walks through the streets and parks of the downtown core in The City, where he both lives and works. Lost in his own thoughts, he initially tries to remain ambivalent about the social issues he sees. But night after night he is forced to confront the bleak reality of a crisis unfolding around him, and is compelled to consider his own relationship to The City and his life choices. In a subjective space between reality and fiction, Noone is placed into a position where he has to consider what choice truly means.

If anyone wants to watch it, here is the link: Nightwalking
 
I've just given your film a first look and am quite interested in settling down soon for a full viewing. Very intriguing. Thank you for bringing it to our attention here at TLO.
 
Does Mr. Noone suffer a schizophrenic or similar psychotic break as the film progesses? Such could be evidenced by his witnessing what could be a staged or imaginary conversation, his sense that suddenly the pulse of downtown has quickened or otherwise altered, his hearing himself speak on a telephone, and as a culmination, the literal split of his personality as one of him may enter the green door and his other half doesn't.

Could this schizophrenic or psychotic break be caused by or exacerbated by the very drugs he rails about in the first half of the film? And also influenced or exacerbated by sexual tension and apprehension this isolated and lonely figure may feel as he ponders the green door?
 
This was very, very well done. Thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed it a great deal. Not only very Ligottian but Schulzian too.
 
cnpappas said:
Does Mr. Noone suffer a schizophrenic or similar psychotic break as the film progesses? Such could be evidenced by his witnessing what could be a staged or imaginary conversation, his sense that suddenly the pulse of downtown has quickened or otherwise altered, his hearing himself speak on a telephone, and as a culmination, the literal split of his personality as one of him may enter the green door and his other half doesn't.

Could this schizophrenic or psychotic break be caused by or exacerbated by the very drugs he rails about in the first half of the film? And also influenced or exacerbated by sexual tension and apprehension this isolated and lonely figure may feel as he ponders the green door?
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for watching it, I appreciate your time. I always think about Barthes and the Death of the Author when reflecting on art, or any hermeneutic analysis of a text. Your subjectivity is incredibly important. I am always interested in other people's interpretation, but when writing it two things were resonant. First, though he may not realize it initially, Mr. No One is as trapped by the circumstances of his life and patterns of behaviour as the subjects he passively observes and feels removed from. Second, at the conclusion of the film, the ultimate horror of our existence would be an inability (or paralysis) to even imagine what an alternative to being a circumstantial automaton would be.
 
Reviewed this elsewhere.
Also created subtitles for any who might need.
Subs = https://www.mediafire.com/file/odqo6m4nplee4ez/Nightwalking-2019.srt/file
 
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