Shit Year by Cam Archer

Being an actor is something that so many people fantasize about, without ever thinking of what happens when the lights go down, the shows end or you simply feel like retiring. This last option is addressed by Shit Year, which follows the famous Colleen West after she decides to give up her successful acting career and retreat to the countryside for a peaceful life.

The duality of the location in which the actress’s house is situated - sometimes too quiet, at other times too loud due to construction work in the area - gives her a permanent feeling of frustration and allows memories of past roles to creep into her life again. Not even her brother, who shows up unannounced in an attempt to reconnect with Colleen now that she had finally decided to be her true self, or the lovely, jubilant neighbour, can make her escape reminiscences, regrets and hallucinations. Colleen’s universe is soon to turn into an unrecognizable mixture of the three, with reality becoming more and more absent from her life.

Filmed in black and white and following the identity crisis of a retired actress, Shit Year can be seen as a contemporary interpretation of Bergman’s Persona. Walking through the woods, Colleen even experiences an Elizabeth/Alma-style dual monologue, the difference being that in Cam Archer’s version the actress assumes both her own role and that of her neighbour. The film is however more than a simple reiteration of the classic, finding its own direction, story, style and explorations. Archer might very well be showing us what Bergman would have done had he lived in the age of MTV, the Internet, social alienation and virtual insanity.

By Maria Diceanu