The Lift - Marc Isaacs

           

              The Lift is a short movie in which the film director, Marc Isaacs, installs himself in the elevator of an English tower. He films its residents everyday in the lift and as the days go by he develops some sort of relationship with them allowing him to get to know some bits of their private lives.

            Some inhabitants seemed to be, at least in the beginning, very disturbed by the camera - some even dismissed the lift to avoid it. Mark would meet often the same people in the lift as they became familiar to each other also people became more friendly. He started calling the residents by their name and some would even bring sometimes food to him. Then, Mark also started asking them some more personal questions, for instance, “what’s on your mind?” and “have you ever been in love before?”. I think this was the most interesting part of the movie for two reasons: Firstly, it made people reflect and to not take their lives so superficially and secondly, the sincerity of them. For me it is astonishing and curious how people tend to be more honest and open about their weaknesses and some delicate topics to strangers. I guess this happens because most of the time with strangers we don’t feel the necessity to fulfill some expectations nor we are afraid of their judgments whilst to the people we love and are close to us we normally feel obliged to appear to be what this people think or hope we are.

            I truly enjoyed the film. It is fascinating how each person has his/her own particularities. Every person is a single identity. I think this movie transmits this idea very well.