In the unsettling Slovak film Visible World (Vidite ny Svet), the protagonist Oliver lives by himself in a high-rise apartment building and trains his binoculars on unsuspecting people in the high-rise across the street. The tag line is “There’s a man with binoculars at the window, watching the people across the street. And he’s definitely not James Stewart.”
It’s an uncommon voyeur film. First, the voyeur isn’t looking at any bad behavior by the people across the street. Second, although he is compelled to spy, he isn’t getting any apparent sexual kick out of what he sees. Instead – and this is the really, really disturbing aspect – he is using what he sees to interfere with their lives – and to insinuate himself into their lives.
Most women like a guy who makes that extra effort to find out what she likes. But going through a woman’s garbage to see what products she uses – before he has met her – that’s pretty high up on the Creep-O-Meter. “I like Chilean Carmenere. You do, too? Imagine that!”
Oliver is played by Ivan Trojan as an extremely terse and focused guy, but one who can surprise the audience by putting on an act of affability to get what he wants. He is an odd duck, for sure – often rudely abrupt with people who wander between him and his obsessions. But he is that unusually high functioning crazy who can hide how very, very sick he is.
I saw Visible World at its North American premiere at Cinequest 22.
