I, Claudia is a film adaptation of a one-woman stageplay. The actress plays four very diverse characters. (there are other incidental warm bodies around, but we never see their faces. Heck, we usually don't even see their heads.) The characters are: Claudia, a soon-to-be 13 year old girl; her soon-to-be stepmother; her paternal grandfather; and her school's maintenance man, a former film director from a fictitious eastern European country.
These characters are all tied up in the events of Claudia's father's divorce and decision to remarry.
The interesting thing about the construction of the film is that the actress creates the four speaking roles with the aid of masks for each character. These masks were actually selected from a set of 26 standard masks which are used by Theatre schools all over the world. Claudia was a character developed by the actress/writer while at theatre school, and then further developed. The other three evolved out of a period of intense experimentation with all 26 masks in the set, trying to develop characters to interact with Claudia. And what characters they are! Each of the four parts is severely different in language, voice and mannerism from the others. Claudia speaks and moves like a twelve year old girl. Her grandfather is convincingly old, forgetful and melancholy. (come to think of it, all the characters are melancholy in their own way. Claudia feels put upon in the fashion of most children of divorce. The woman who is marrying Claudia's father just wants to be loved. The school caretaker mourns his glory days as a celebrated filmmaker. Hmm)
Adapting a stage play to film is always a bit tricky. The director decided that it should be shot documentary-style; with each character speaking monologue directly to the camera, as if they were being interviewed. This was a good soloution because the face-on camera angle was the best way to get expression from the masks.
Posted by Gaunt at September 13, 2004 05:01 PM