{"id":8264,"date":"2010-02-22T19:58:59","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T03:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8264"},"modified":"2010-02-22T22:17:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T06:17:07","slug":"vital-signs-sophie-deraspe-2009-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8264","title":{"rendered":"Vital Signs (Sophie Deraspe, 2009): Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are two sides to every coin.\u00a0 Where there is life there is also death.\u00a0 One cannot give without receiving.\u00a0 These are the prevalent themes of Sophie Deraspe\u2019s Vital Signs<\/a><\/em>, a dramatic tale of life and death that is certain to bring out the existentialist in all of us.<\/p>\n

The story centers on Simone, a student at Harvard, played by the talented rookie Marie-Helene Bellavance.\u00a0 Simone\u2019s grandmother passes away and leaves everything she had to Simone.\u00a0 Simone is confused about the nature of her grandmother\u2019s passing.\u00a0 She believes she could have been notified earlier about her grandmother\u2019s condition and been there for her.\u00a0 Simone\u2019s curiosity leads her to volunteer at the palliative care ward where her grandmother passed.<\/p>\n

Simone spends more and more time at the ward, giving everything she has to these old, near death patients.\u00a0 She believes she is helping the patients by giving them their time.\u00a0 She also feels more alive when she is around these people because she feels they need her.\u00a0 Simone is a very caring and sentimental person when it comes to others, the difficulties she has lie within herself.<\/p>\n

Deraspe makes quite the impression in only her second feature film.\u00a0 Already she has a style I can confidently say is her own.\u00a0 Due to the heavy subject matter this film can do some serious work on our emotions.\u00a0 Deraspe helps alleviate this barrage by incorporating musical interludes.\u00a0 During the narrative, the action will be broken up by musical performances.\u00a0 The joy and happiness in these scenes are a stark contrast to the life-death theme of the film.\u00a0 However, these scenes do feel very out of place regardless of whether or not they are enjoyable.\u00a0 They felt flat and somewhat deflating.\u00a0 Deraspe has a wonderful concept blooming here and with some practice can really take advantage of this melodious segue.<\/p>\n

The actors in the film do deserve a lot of credit because there is so much raw emotion. \u00a0Bellavance does an exceptional job, for a rookie, in her portrayal of Simone.\u00a0 This is a very internal character, which is challenging for any actor let alone someone who has never done it before.\u00a0 The chemistry between the performers is so real we often get confused.\u00a0 At one point I asked myself, is this a documentary.\u00a0 The realism in the actors and the pacing of this film suggest something other than a narrative.\u00a0 Without Deraspe\u2019s cinematography we might be left guessing as to what type of film this really is.\u00a0 Some may consider this a flaw, which it is, but I found it to be soothing rather than disturbing.<\/p>\n

The wonderful thing about this heartwarming tale is that it reaches all of us, or perhaps those of us who are less insecure.\u00a0 Every person has his or her strengths, which we are prone to boast about.\u00a0 Often times we feel invincible, like we could solve the world\u2019s problems with just a little commitment.\u00a0 This feeling can sometimes cloud our judgment, making us believe we are the only ones capable.\u00a0 This is wrong.\u00a0 Accepting help is not a weakness; it is human.\u00a0 Building relationships is what makes us human.\u00a0 Helping and accepting help from those we love is what it truly means to be alive.\u00a0 Without the help and love from others we might as well be dead. \u00a0This film helps us realize how important human relationships are.\u00a0 For this, I thank Sophie Deraspe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. There are two sides to every coin.\u00a0 Where there is life there is also death.\u00a0 One cannot give without receiving.\u00a0 These are the prevalent themes of Sophie Deraspe\u2019s Vital Signs, a dramatic tale of life and death that is certain to bring out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}