Signifying Nothing - Kendall Weinberg & Eliot Bilski

Fiction Film
12:08

A girl possessed by her murderous alter-ego.

Signifying Nothing

Content Warning:The film explores violent themes which some people may find distressing.

Signifying Nothing portrays and questions the inner workings of our minds. As the protagonist tries to live a normal life she is overcome by her murderous alter-ego, an aloof presence who is obsessed with poetry and philosophy. Her passion for painting has been overshadowed by this inner self who turns her artistic desires into nonsensical emptiness. As she walks a thin line between being herself and being overcome by another version of her, the alter-ego starts to take hold. Her continued weird behavior begins to make her roommates feel uncomfortable and apprehensive towards her.

The film draws technical inspiration from the surreal and new-wave film movements of the 20th century. Its effect on the viewer is supposed to be jarring, provoking thoughts and feelings that might be slightly uncomfortable. The name comes from Ѳٳ’s final soliloquy, an apt title, for ours truly is a tale told by 2 idiots.

The girl wielding her brush against her painting just before it disappears.

The girl wielding her brush against her painting just before it disappears.

A corridor of books with strange titles like ‘Anatomy of Loneliness’ and ‘Humor and Laughter’. A lone man stands amongst them reading.

A corridor of books with strange titles like ‘Anatomy of Loneliness’ and ‘Humor and Laughter’. A lone man stands amongst them reading.

Two men are fighting, one has blue hair and it is this blue haired man who is about to be knocked out.

Two men are fighting, one has blue hair and it is this blue haired man who is about to be knocked out.

The girl fading into her murderous alter-ego. She stands in place smoking outside in the dark.

The girl fading into her murderous alter-ego. She stands in place smoking outside in the dark.

The girl playing her final game of cards with her roommates. She's clearly tired and not paying attention to her game.

The girl playing her final game of cards with her roommates. She's clearly tired and not paying attention to her game.

The man sits alone on a boring looking couch and chants the anonymous Tom O’ Bedlam song.

The man sits alone on a boring looking couch and chants the anonymous Tom O’ Bedlam song.

Accessible film scene descriptions

Scene 1:
We see books with strange titles like ‘Anatomy of Loneliness’ and ‘Humor and Laughter’. A lone man stands amongst them reading.
He cuts cherry tomatoes, staring at them through a reflective pair of sunglasses. As his knife wielding becomes abrasive gorey visions of a deer being disemboweled flash for a few moments. He holds up a gorey tomato on his thumb.
Title sequence, the film is called Signifying Nothing

Scene 2:
A clock ticks but the second hand is stuck at 10:50 and 43 seconds. A girl paints alone in an empty studio, she wears a pink sweater and a blue mask. Visions flash of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes. The girl’s painting is abstract and colorful but void of any subject. As the music increases in intensity so does her painting. Visions flash of Goya’s cannibals on a beach. She becomes more and more erratic until a vision flashes of two cats fighting on a wall. She smacks a whole in her canvas, a vision flashes of a Robert Motherwell Painting. She stares blankly at her work, for it is completely white, her past work not visible; nothing but an empty canvas. She steps back to stare at what's happened.

Scene 3:
More visions of the dead deer being hoisted out of a truck.
The man who we previously saw reading is now walking alone on a moonlit autumn night. He wears black to match the color of dark. Reaching his home the man sits down and begins to chant the mad song of Tom O’ Bedlam. During the second stanza a Barnett Newman painting flashes. Soon more Gentileschi pictures are shown as the poem builds to its final apotheosis, at which point we see the painting that appears in the old Penguin Classics publication of Miguel de Cervantes’ “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha”. He finishes the poem, then sits in silence.

Scene 4:
Plugged into a wall is an upside down lamp. Two friends sit in a basement watching Street Beefs. They laugh when a crackhead is knocked out. The doorbell rings and their roommate, the girl we saw painting, comes down to greet them. They play video games and relax. As the girl’s behavior becomes increasingly odd her roommates become visibly uncomfortable, so the group decides to play a game of cards. As the girl explains the rules the music gets louder and louder, drowning out what she's saying. The girl is clearly annoyed with how the card game goes and so leaves to smoke a cigarette. A final vision of the deer hanging to dry.

Scene 5:
The girl lights her smoke and as she inhales she turns into the man. He puts out the smoke and goes inside to murder his/her two roommates.
End Title Sequence.