Clarinet

• Directed By: D.J. Summitt
• Written By: Zac Hayes
• Country: USA
• Released: 2005
• Running Time: 6 Min
• Links: Official Site
• Drama, Reviews

Clarinet is the story – told in voiceover – of musician, Henry Soja (Zac Hayes). It starts off cheerfully enough as Soja recalls his first clarinet and fondly remembers the pleasure it brought him until the instrument was stolen.

After this things started to go downhill increasingly quickly as he effectively gave up on life.

As the sole actor in the film, Zac Hayes puts in an excellent performance of a man becoming increasingly erratic, but the real stars of this film are the cinematography and the imagery.

The washed out photography of the film creates a very bleak atmosphere as we follow this young man’s downward spiral and gives a genuinely disturbing feel to the – often quite mundane – images around him.

With its depiction of the downward spiral of a man succumbing to the depths of depression, this beautifully shot but downbeat film makes for an eerily effective look at an unfulfilled life.