original title:
Luci spente
directed by:
cast:
Matteo Castagna, Gledis Cinque, Emilia Scarpati Fanetti, Saverio Trovato
screenplay:
Pier Vittorio Mannucci
cinematography:
editing:
costume design:
Monia Manuello
music:
Alberto Ricca
producer:
production:
Flabbergasted Pictures, Zamboni56, PaT Passi Teatrali
country:
Italy
year:
2015
film run:
60'
format:
colour
festivals & awards:
"Lights Out" is a psychological thriller. It tells the story of Laura Locke who is visiting her best friend Mary. Mary is in an hospital because of a car accident and now she is in a state of catatonia. What seemed just a visit to a friend soon becomes an eerie and introspective experience.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
One evening I went to see a theatre play, “Lights Out". What stroke me the most about theplay was the dramaturgical idea behind it because it was unusual and brave for being and Italian story. In a certain sense it was closer to the American stories found in TV series, or at the cinema. So, I asked the author and the theatre company PaT - Passi Teatrali if they were willing to adapt the play to the screen and make a NO BUDGET movie. NOBUDGET, contrary to “independent”, means “poor”, starting with the amount of time thatcast and crew can dedicate to an initially unpaid job. The production has been a realchallenge for all of us. We concentrated the filming in only 7 days, committing all our energies in order to complete it in time.
The rotoscoping technique was used in order to give a continuity between the theatricality of the story and the filming medium. It also magnifies the dark and creepy atmospheres of a story that revolves around mental sanity, around the edge between conscious and unconscious, light and shadow. Thus, the flashing light becomes a metaphor for reason, a reason that comes and goes, and that eventually drowns in an indefinite and endless dark.