ABSTRACT
Selective focus gives a filmmaker the ability to direct an audience’s attention to specific areas of a frame, which ultimately influences how they understand the shot’s meaning. The degree of blurriness in out of focus areas, however, should be adjusted according to how much visual detail is needed to understand the narrative point of the shot, because different levels of visual information can communicate different degrees of tension, emotional engagement, and many other narrative contexts/subtexts. Director Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, the story of Christine, a lonely, wheelchair-bound young woman with multiple sclerosis who visits the eponymous pilgrim’s destination, features a brilliant use of selective focus in a shot that illustrates how precise control over the off-focus level can visually and subtly enhance the drama and generate tension. In this poignant scene, Christine listens as Maria, a volunteer in charge of assisting her, reveals that her search for meaning prompted her to come to Lourdes to help others.
