The Spectre at the Window: Tracey Moffatt's 'beDevil' (1993)

Article sample:

Moffatt's films are intimately tied to her photographic work, for which she is best known. She insists that 'it is the international look, the different people I have photographed in my work and their universal predicaments that has taken me and my images out into the world.' beDevil shares many visual similarities to Moffatt's photography, most obviously through her theatrical, stylised and hyper-real aesthetic. There is persistent attention paid to composition in this film, and the framing of the shots are instantly evocative of her still images. beDevil also acts as an extension of the way that her photographic work alludes to narratives, yet also simultaneously brim with ambiguity. Moffatt's work both captures and elicits emotions, with her aesthetic intention one of audience engagement and provocation.

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Senses of Cinema is an online journal devoted to the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema. We believe cinema is an art that can take many forms, from the industrially-produced blockbuster to the hand-crafted experimental work; we also aim to encourage awareness of the histories of such diverse forms. As an Australian-based journal, we have a special commitment to the regular, wide-ranging analysis and critique of Australian cinema, past and present. Senses of Cinema is primarily concerned with ideas about particular films or bodies of work, but also with the regimes (ideological, economic and so forth) under which films are produced and viewed, and with the more abstract theoretical and philosophical issues raised by film study.