“Nausea Bay” by William Stancik

William Stancik is back, probably with one of his best films. “Nausea Bay” is in fact a very precise mechanism, in which the visual choices, the references, the suggestions and the narration create a much smaller universe than the wide spaces to which Stancik has accustomed us. This time, the darkest recesses of the mind stir in the claustrophobic space of a lighthouse, whose walls seem to tighten more and more, as the protagonists reach their peak. Stancik’s camera bravely slips into extreme perspectives, and the hallucinatory shots manage, more than words, to underline a sense of alienation. But the film, before descending into the most hostile spaces of human confrontation, declares itself from the very first minutes as an act of love towards the cinema of the past. Stancik has accustomed us to this personal reworking of the styles and suggestions of the past. The references to silent cinema, the wallpaper, the old cathode ray tube TVs are not, however, a simple display of a retro taste. These elements seem distorted by a surreal atmosphere and the distortion of familiar concepts becomes the key to access this film, which is only apparently hermetic.

In “Nausea Bay” you can easily find a universal human representation, which extends far beyond the fascinating staging. While this film confirms the classic elements of Stancik’s poetics, it is possible to note an evolution of the aesthetic and stylistic system. The theatrical construction gives way to a more dynamic system: the camera gains space and imposes a direction on the story that is far more complex than the screenplay. Stancik is an interesting author and is still able to surprise us.