Reminiscent of a dark fairytale, Isabel Pagliai’s feature debut conjures a multitude of thresholds, lingering somewhere between documentary and fiction, dream and reality. Louise, the young woman at the centre of this beguiling film, is a mirage of a character; introduced in fragments, we first hear her lilting lamentations against a darkened screen. This is followed by closeups of a yellow notebook, in which her fears and desires overflow on every page, as they are read out by a mysterious, unseen man.
When Louise finally materialises on screen, her everyday existence unfurls over deceptively mundane episodes. Through these sequences, Pagliai builds a fascinating tension between the stillness of the compositions and Louise’s agitated psyche. She is often seen in darkness, her face lit by the glow of various screen devices that flicker with snippets of songs and film scenes. This virtual flood of audiovisual materials takes on a literal form as if by magic, we see Louise out of her room and into the woods. Here, she encounters Thomas, the male narrator whose voice appears at the beginning of the film. At one point, Louise is partially submerged in a moonlit pond, a modern-day Ophelia swept up by unanswered fantasies.
In contrast to this melancholic mood, Pagliai’s visual style is thrillingly eclectic. The mix of painterly static shots and lo-fi, handheld footage channels a state of emotional paralysis. When Louise speaks of a violent sexual assault that might or might not have taken place, her story is accompanied by a dizzying cascade of images where human figures are grotesquely distorted. Her tone, however, is as detached as when she describes her masturbation habits; that the images might have been generated by AI further emphasises her alienation. In this age of constant distraction, even the realm of imagination and memory is not safe from the intrusion of technology.
• Fantaisie is at the ICA, London from 7 November.
