The Dreamy Mouth: A Slow Burn That Might Drive You Nuts

Is it worth your time?

If you have a thing for old-school, slightly moody dramas where people just stare at each other while music plays, you’ll probably find something to love here. If you need a movie to keep you on your toes or explain its own logic, skip it. You will absolutely hate how long it takes for anything to actually happen.

There is this moment about halfway through where the camera just lingers on a violinist's hand for way too long. I mean, it’s a nice hand, sure. But did we need to see every single twitch of the finger for an eternity? It felt like the director was trying to make a point that went right over my head.

Maria Fromet is doing a lot with very little, which is impressive. You can see the exhaustion in her eyes, like she’s just tired of the two men competing for her attention. Honestly, I’d be tired too if I had to listen to two violinists bicker all night. 🎻

The pacing is… well, it’s a choice. It moves at the speed of a snail moving through molasses. Sometimes I wondered if the projector had just slowed down, but no, that’s just the vibe. It reminded me a bit of the suffocating feeling in The Bells, though here the stakes are way more personal and way less spooky.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Dreamy Mouth (1932) through its definitive frames.

There is this weirdly empty feeling to the background characters. Like, do they know they are in a movie? They just kind of wander in and out of the frame. It’s distracting if you think about it too much, so I stopped.

The Violinists

• They are both insufferable in their own way.
• I couldn't tell who was the better musician, but I knew who I wanted to leave the room first.
• The arguments feel like they've been going on for years before the camera started rolling.

I don't know, maybe I'm just grumpy. But there’s a scene where they are practicing, and the sheer intensity of the eye contact is almost funny. It’s like, just play the music already! We don't need a whole opera of facial expressions to go with a single note.

It’s not perfect. It’s barely even polished. But it has this weird, jagged edge that kept me watching until the end, even when I wanted to check my watch. It’s not quite as grand as Battleship Potemkin—obviously—but it’s a different kind of intensity. A smaller, messier one.

If you watch it, pay attention to the lighting in the third act. It gets all shadowy, and for a second, I thought the bulb was burning out. Turns out, it was just the mood. Or maybe just a cheap setup. Either way, it worked. 🕯️