Violet (Luis Berdejo, 2013) | USA

Like the flower, the beauty in the film “Violet” is hard to describe with words.  Mere words can’t describe the beauty that I saw in this film. Going into the film, all I knew about it was that it was titled “Violet.” This was very intriguing to me as the color violet is known to represent beauty. So I decided to give it a chance. Boy was I glad I did.

As soon as the film started the vivid imagery and the beautiful use of music blew me away and had me hooked right in. The story starts off with Alex, a young man from Santa Monica and a female friend  dancing together as music plays in the background.  You can instantly tell that these two people have a connection much deeper than physical attraction. They seemed genuinely happy and comfortable in each others presence. But Alex is infatuated with the picture of a girl that he found that he calls “Violet.” He doesn’t know how old she is, where in the world she lives, or even if she is still alive. Alex though, is determined to find this mystery girl who he believes to be the love of his life. As this emotional powerhouse really gets going, you get the feeling that Alex isn’t searching for this girl, as much as he is searching for himself. The girl “Violet” just seems like an excuse for him to finally get out of his box and start his life afresh. But in order to do so he has to find out his history and who he is as a human first.

One thing that really caught my eye while watching “Violet” was the great cinematography in the film. The use of old-school, grainy looking footage really added a sense of authenticity and emotion to the film. Another thing that really added to the aesthetic beauty of the film was the lighting in some of the scenes. As Alex got closer and closer to reaching his goal on his spiritual journey of finding himself, the amount of light and the vivid colors in the scenes increase. All of this culminated to one of the most beautiful scenes in the entire film, where it seems like Alex finally found a bit of himself and had a startling epiphany about his life, what mattered to him, and who he really was. This scene particularly affected me because of the sheer amount of beauty in the scene. For a second I thought I was looking at a Van Gogh painting not just a film screen, it really felt that authentic.  All of the colors along with the music in the background was almost too much to handle at once because there were so many layers of scenic, vivid colors and sound just in that one shot.

Like many great works of art, you have to read between the lines in order to really appreciate this masterpiece. This film will take you on an emotional and spiritual roller coaster unlike anything you have seen before.