Amita RajGuru, Post 4

The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them, 1992, Matthew Meshekoff

They were the perfect couple... Then they fell in love. Directed by Matthew Meshekoff, the film begins with a series of medium shots interspersed with a few close-up shots and some other humorous shots along the way. In fact, there is a particularly funny point-of-view shot that is used at the beginning of the movie to introduce the two main characters, David and Carrie. When David is in a bar, he looks through a periscope up at the street above the bar and watches women’s legs as they pass by. 

Crowd scenes, such as at the baseball game, have the foreground in focus and blur the background slightly because Carrie and David’s scene occurs in the foreground. This particular scene also features an over-the-shoulder close-up of Carrie from a slightly high angle so the viewer looks down at her over David’s shoulder – which is a very flattering and dynamic angle. 

Apart from jump cuts and montages used to show the passing of time, medium close-up shots and slow pans are used to capture the more intimate scenes between David and Carrie. The bulk of the movie comprises of two-shots of Carrie and David and yet they don’t always appear the same. For example, when they first meet, they are standing facing each other, and are captured in over-the-shoulder shots. During the rest of the movie, they are almost always side by side and yet each two-shot looks different: by the office door, they’re leaning into each other; on the beach chair, they’re both leaning diagonally right in the shot. It’s fun. It’s interesting. Though it’s the same two people, it’s never boring.

Meshekoff repeatedly breaks the rule of thirds – a lot of shots focus on the center of the frame rather than the four hotspots of the tic tac toe grid. This does, at times, make for a boring image, but the characters are lively enough to avoid complete boredom. For example, most of the close-ups of Carrie are centered rather than off-center. This doesn’t make for a dynamic shot, but it cuts to other shots quickly enough to avoid the viewer loosing focus.

To break away from the monotony that can arise from a typical boy-meets-girl love story, there is an occasional interruption by a blonde commentator (whose role is also filled by David and other characters). The choice of filming style is interesting here because it is shot head-on, which isn’t very flattering. Appearing as a relatively flat image, there isn’t much dynamism in these scenes – however, her actions and lively behavior somewhat compensate for the flat picture.

At one point during the film, Carrie directly addresses the camera, which creates a sense of intimacy with her and the viewer, but is also strange because it’s unusual... so far, the only characters that have addressed the camera have been shot head-on with a black backdrop, which is directly intentional. But the shot doesn’t get boring because it gradually zooms in, from a medium shot of her in the bathtub to a medium close-up shot. Soon after, David also addresses the camera but it begins as a close-up shot and progresses to a medium shot of him sitting back in bed. It links the viewer with the characters more to understand what they’re feeling. 

An interestingly shot sequence towards the end of the film: a small, old television set is shown on screen, which is playing out the rekindling of David and Carrie’s relationship after their brief falling-out. It’s a quirky, more interactive way to show the progression and resolution of their relationship

Ending on a slightly cheesier note, the two plan to get married. After a full shot of a baseball field, Meshekoff cues the nostalgic and life-affirming music to close in on a series of medium and medium close-up shots of David and Eli talking about David’s impending marriage. The mixed religion wedding goes off without a hitch and comprises of another series of medium shots and long shots. The characters that address the camera at the end provide more comedy relief and a sense that the viewer was more involved in the story.