calling the whole thing off
by Douglas Messerli
Marco De Luca and Irene Harris (screenplay), Marco De Luca (director) Two Meters Apart /
2020 [3 minutes]
In this truly brief film, we experience the
aftermath of a short but extremely intense relationship in the context of a
sudden cessation through the pandemic COVID-19 lockdown.
Adam had just met Tom and is clearly in love, announcing that he would continue to love him anywhere, from any distance. We see brief frames of their love-making, kissing and simply the enjoyment of each other’s presence.
And
now, he suddenly cannot reach out to his new lover, does not know how he is,
whether or not he’s sick and needs his help. The feeling shifts from one of
intense love to memories, which is now all that is left.
Just as suddenly a signal appears on his e-mail: “I don’t have the
virus. But let’s call it quits. It was only one day anyway.”
What this film seems to suggest is that the isolation of the lockdown
did not just affect long-term relationships and family intimacy, but even the
beginnings, the buddings of friendships and love that now suddenly have grown
dead before they even had a chance to get started. Had they only had a week, a
month, a few days they might have been to withstand an isolation of months. But
there is no chance now to even get to know one another, despite the joyful day
they had together.
Not
a profound work, English director Marco De Luca’s short piece reveals further
the total devastation of lives that the Pandemic had. It changed nearly
everyone’s life.
Los Angeles, May 28, 2023
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May
2023)
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