Movie Review: Tailor My Heart
MOVIE: Tailor My Heart
DIRECTOR: Charles Uwagbai
CAST: Frederick Leonard, Lota Chukwu
GENRE: Romance (Nigeria TV)
This movie is constantly in my consciousness because the camera tells the story.
What do you mean? Of course movies are not slides. They are moving pictures captured by the camera. I concur, but Tailor My Heart is a camera friendly movie because there’s no single line with the traditional ‘I love you.’ The camera tells me what time it is emotionally, between boy and girl.
Film students in colleges and universities learn about silent movies. There’s no dialogue. Unfortunately, they are dismissed as brash comedy and nothing else.
But they are very important in cine history because they told a story without actors saying anything and viewers got the message. Then they introduced dialogue: ‘talkies.’
In Africa, what killed movies was the boom microphone. Directors forgot that it can be detached from the pole and brought closer to actors. Example. The scene has a family of 6 in the living room, full of gold-plated sofas. They are all talking but we can’t hear a word they’re saying because the boom mic is over there.
Nigerian directors in particular, became obsessed with the gate man and his antics, going to the extent of giving him ten minutes screen time. Also wasting time are cars on the road for a solid five minutes. Why? How does that contribute to the story?
Tailor My Heart is concise. It highlights Frederick Leonard’s incredible acting. The camera tells the story through an eyebrow, his hand, his shoulders, the way he walks.
Lota Chukwu, who plays Leonard’s love interest has small but amazing eyes. They spit fire, hurt or love, depending on camera angles. Charles Uwagbai the director, doesn’t waste screen time. Every shot has a reason.
There’s a scene where Nkem (Frederick Leonard) walks his client to his car. In most movies, that would have eaten 15 minutes of screen time: opening the house door, walking client to his car, he starts the car, client reversing, turning the car straight before it leaves the compound. Wasteful action that doesn’t add anything to the story.
Uwagbai is an economy director. He probably asks himself the question: what is the use of this scene? That economy is even more important in movies that don’t rely on the line, I love you, every ten minutes.
Tailor My Heart is such an engaging film because the audience is engrossed, captivated by the story. Why? There are no distractions, 30 seconds bridge scenes every 2 minutes or long scenes of actors walking from the south to the north of the village, accompanied by the sound track.
This is another ‘written podcast’ written by Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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