The Most Beautiful Man in the World

The most beautiful man in the world is not a movie that would raise profound questions about the meaning of life or the lack of it. What it does is however to recreate an ordinary day of a little girl’s life into a lyrical tale about her awakening, both metaphorically and objectively, for the world around her. In less than six minutes, this movie reveals with beauty and pure understanding the intimate world of children in which every little detail of living is experienced with sincerity, depth and the seriousness of a great event. The director, Alicia Duffy implies a truth of her own that is waiting to be read and sensed both through the visual language and clarity of this short film, and the aesthetic precision with which each shot is crafted.

The enigma about the most beautiful man in the world is slowly approached and exposed through the evocative use of diagetic sound, visual imagery, and narrative simplicity. The ultimate key toward a more thorough discernment of this rather ambiguous and mysteriously beautiful movie is strongly implied in the title. For whom is the male protagonist in this film the most beautiful man in the world and why are the two questions that propel the film’s narrative and aspire imagination.

An atmosphere of suspense is created with the very first read of the title of the movie. The viewer is provoked and is left in anticipation to the very end of the movie. The most challenging answers come unexpectedly and in small packages. In this case, the prologue scene of the movie shows a close up of a little girl yawning while watching in front of the television screen. Her eyes do not sparkle with childish enthusiasm but blink with apathy and tiredness instead. The tight frames of the shot along with the murky lighting of the room suggest nothing but physical as well as emotional captivity. The typical for most children playfulness, vitality, and passionate emotionality are all restricted within the limited space of her home. The closed composition of the first five frames of the movie, shot in the house, generates a mood of prolonged lethargy, and a nervous atmosphere of inexorable boredom. What escalades up to the culmination of such a psychological tension is the continuous sound of a telephone ringing. The superficial calamity and the fragile silence of the scene have been irrevocably interrupted. Furthermore, the uneventful flow of the day is naturally interrupted as well. The entire scene is painted in monotonic colors. The sense of coldness and alienation in the house is increased even more with the background weary even voice of the mother, talking on the phone. There is nothing left for the girl to do except to search for a more welcoming environment in the world that is outside her window. A whole new world to be explored by her and she is giving into to it thoroughly and wholeheartedly. The girl does not spend her time thinking and judging the events; she just listens to the sound of the birds, the thunder in the sky, and the flyover with the fascination and curiosity as if perceived for the first time. Trying to escape the sultry atmosphere of the summer day and the boredom of a staying-at-home adult’s casual life, she follows the breeze showing the direction of her next adventure. She approaches towards the edge of the house’s fence with the slow hesitation of a bird that has just left its cage, yet not capable of believing in its freedom. Once stepping into a field of long hiding grass, she walks through it as if flying. The image of the house is symbolically left behind. What is in front of her is suggested through an imaginative sound rhythm coming from the animal world of the natural setting. The preceding monotony and tension is now overcome through a fusion of natural melodies combined with the carefree play of sunrays. Indeed, intense golden light pours into the scene putting an emphasis on the girl’s face, revealing curiosity and liveliness. Each image is individually composed like a vision in which feelings of utopia and ultimate peacefulness are finally naturally created. Yet, a penetrating feeling for something upcoming is still present. The consecutive images of the girl’s hands touching the grass and then gathering sticks do not show a random play but rather imply the search for something new and adventurous.

The eye-leveled angle of the camera is chosen in order to create a stronger contrast with the next shot made in extremely low-angle in which the girl is playing with her water reflection. It seems as if she distorts her own self-image purposefully. The visual power of this scene comes indeed, from the quietness used to imply the inner transformation that happens within the girl. It seems the time has stopped when the little girl meets