Hi I’m Sareesh Sudhakaran.
In this video I’ll show you how to make
a movie about nothing.
No plot, no purpose, no intent to manipulate
an audience except to tell a story.
Which is usually about nothing.
Just because a film is about nothing doesn’t
mean it’s easier to make.
While watching the film the audience shouldn’t
feel like it’s about nothing.
Don’t tell them it's about nothing when
they’re handing over money for the ticket.
Until the very last minute it’s kept a secret.
You feel you’re watching a story with a
definite ending.
Either they lived happily ever after, or they
all got hacked into different pieces except
the virgin.
The typical reaction one expects from a successful
film about nothing is the question: ‘That’s
it?
Where’s the rest?’
The answer: In your head.
And if it isn’t there, it isn’t anywhere.
Like money in your bank account.
A movie about your bank account will have
all kinds of scenes around it, but will never
tell you how much money you have.
Some call it intellectual stimulation.
Others ask for their money back.
So, how do you make a film about nothing?
You start by believing your film is about
something.
If you believe it your cast and crew will
believe it, too.
The next step is to actually have a great
plot, but not the ending.
Or, you shouldn’t care about the ending.
In Chungking Express the first story is about
a boy who meets a girl at the end.
The second story is about a boy and a girl
who have found each other, they practically
spend every day together, but can’t admit
their love or even acknowledge it for some
strange reason.
Every scene in the film drives the narrative
forward.
In the first plot the mystery girl’s mixed
up in some dangerous business.
The boy’s a cop.
So we’re expecting fireworks, right?
There aren’t any.
They end up in a bar talking.
And by the way, don’t worry about spoilers,
you can’t spoil a film that doesn’t have
an ending.
The second plot is about another cop and a
different girl.
They talk every day.
She breaks in many times, cleans his clothes
and his apartment and buys his groceries.
He catches her twice, but they’re still
confused.
Are they?
Aren’t they?
The answer: We don’t know how much money
is in your bank account.
At this point I’m wishing to do to both
of them what David Lynch did to me in Lost
Highway.
I actually have a theory on Lost Highway.
I’ll tell you at the end so others who haven’t
watched the film won’t feel ignored.
In the Lost Highway you have a story about
two male protagonists.
One is accused of murdering his wife, and
the other runs away with his wife.
And she hates both of them.
There’s lots of mystery.
We follow these mysteries until we don’t
follow them anymore.
What makes a great movie about nothing is,
you’ll stick around to the end because until
that point the filmmaking is riveting.
By the way, both Chungking Express and Lost
Highway are good films.
They have great moments.
Especially Chungking Express.
One could argue Mulholland Drive is a better
movie about nothing than Lost Highway.
The movies don’t have much in common.
Lost Highway is plot driven.
Chungking Express is just scenes strung together
with such skill you still think there’s
a plot, even when there isn’t.
The best master of the film about nothing
must be Michaelangelo Antonioni.
Antonioni made two classic films about nothing.
Both are mysteries the protagonists try to
solve.
In L'Avventura, a woman goes missing from
a picnic on an island.
The two people who love her spend the rest
of the movie looking for her.
In Blow Up the protagonist possibly photographs
a murder in a park, and spends the rest of
the movie trying to solve it.
I won’t reveal the endings, but in the end,
you realize the movie isn’t what you signed
up for.
You could intellectualize it and try to distort
meaning from it if you want.
For some people that’s the definition of
an art film.
It is supposed to stimulate discussion and
debate.
If that is the criterion, then Star Wars,
Bad Boys and practically any film that’s
marketed will qualify.
Which film would have the best debates?
The one with a lack of ending or the one in
which Hans Solo returns?
Ultimately, though, I like all the movies
mentioned in this video, despite me being
frustrated by the lack of an ending.
What I’ve realized is, you can make a movie
about anything as long as it’s interesting.
The most important ingredient is a director
who has something unique to share and the
skill to share it through the medium of cinema.
You watch it and think: Oh, that’s how life
is.
Didn’t know I could see life this way.
Instead of debates with other people, a good
art movie generates internal debates and introspection.
You realize a little bit about yourself, you
see a glimpse of life you didn’t know existed,
and you are entertained for the duration of
the film.
What’s wrong with that?
If you liked this video please hit like, and
don’t forget to subscribe and hit the bell
you’ll see on the right - because unlike
the films discussed in this video, this video
is about something.
It has an ending - an ending I promised.
My version of what happened in Lost Highway.
Lost Highway is basically a story told in
mixed order of events.
You have Fred, who’s married to Renee.
She has a life from before she met him.
She’s involved in the porno world with a
kingpin known as Eddy ‘Dick’ Laurant.
Maybe he’s Dick Laurant because he was a
porn star himself back in the day.
She still sleeps with him, and has an affair
with a kid named Pete who works in a garage.
Pete also fixes Eddy’s car.
Eddy suspects her of sleeping around, but
can’t prove it.
Either that or he likes Pete too much so doesn’t
kill him right away.
Renee sleeps with Eddy one last time at a
motel.
To his bad luck Fred has followed them there
and attacks him.
He drives away with Eddy in the trunk.
The mystery man watches from another room
and follows them.
In the desert Eddy surprises Fred, but the
mystery man saves the day and kills Eddy.
His body is left in the desert.
This is the first time Fred meets the mystery
man.
The mystery man then stalks Fred with video
tapes of his house.
More on that later.
Later they have a party where we meet Andy,
who’s supposedly the pimp.
The mystery man is also at the party, and
he tries to remind Fred they have met earlier,
but he can’t remember.
He hands over his phone to Fred, so it could
just be him playing mind games.
Maybe he’s slipping drugs into Fred’s
drink so Fred won’t remember anything.
This is why Fred asks Andy who the mystery
man is, and Andy answers: (friend of the Dick
Laurant).
Then Fred remembers Dick Laurant is dead,
but Andy is shocked to hear that.
Dick has probably been missing for a couple
of days, and his body is in the desert.
So nobody knows about it yet.
At the party Renee and Andy talk, and she
gets the idea to steal from him.
She goes by the name of Alice with Pete, and
she asks Pete to rob Andy so they can run
away with some cash.
She realizes Dick Laurant is dead, so she’s
free now.
She just has to trick Pete into going along
with her plan.
Pete and Renee manage to kill Andy through
an accident.
Note that neither Pete nor Fred are killers,
and do not actually kill anybody.
Dick Laurant is killed by the mystery man,
not Fred.
Anyway, Pete goes home to collect his stuff,
and his girlfriend’s there.
They make a scene, he behaves very strangely,
and runs away with Renee.
They drive away and she tells Pete they need
to go to the desert.
Once there, they realize the mystery man isn’t
home yet, and they make love to pass the time.
Unfortunately for Renee she tells Pete she
doesn’t care for him, and she probably nails
him on the head so he loses consciousness.
The mystery man arrives and realizes she’s
behind this whole mess.
He tricks her into returning home.
At home, Fred is in a fugue state.
The mystery man enters and kills Renee.
He cuts her up into pieces and records the
whole thing.
As you can see, when Fred is crying over his
wife’s body, somebody is recording it.
Pete wakes up and walks all the way back to
the highway.
There, the mystery man finds him.
The police arrest Fred and he’s sentenced
to death.
The mystery man uses his influence to bribe
the guards to change Fred for Pete in the
middle of the night.
How do I know this?
Because the guards make a strange joke just
before.
(which wife killer?).
So right after that scene Pete takes Fred’s
place, and the two complicit guards don’t
say a thing.
Of course the police have to let Pete go,
because he’s not wanted for anything yet.
The police tail him, and he leads them to
Andy’s home where they find his prints.
By the way, from the jail Fred is taken to
the mystery man’s house.
He has to hide from the cops.
There he realizes the truth, and runs away.
He returns to his house.
The police have been staking out the place.
Both Pete and Fred end up as wanted men on
the run.
Case closed.
Are you still here?
If yes, here’s a bonus.
Did you know David Lynch has a YouTube channel?
I’ll link to it in the description.
