«Ms. Davis’ Close Friend» by Richard Schertzer

Young director Richard Schertzer gives us an intense meditation on grief and fear, stepping into the shoes of a sick woman resigned to having to look the end in the eye, but until the end lucid and attentive to what is happening in her inner world.

A simple, flowing film for a difficult subject that unfolds a lucid self-awareness, with dark points of the mind that the author plumbs without hesitation with all the enthusiasm of his age and from his personal experience.
Danette Illig’s essential performance holds this short film together, supported by secondary characters who serve as her sidekicks and counterparts, both visually and symbolically.

The film’s cinematography is particularly refined and apt at portraying the delicacy of the protagonist, and the choice of black and white ensures that the viewer’s focus is on the rich dialogue. The result is a fresco of an inner landscape in which loneliness and memory are glimpsed, ruthless and tender at the same time, memorable as the sign of what remains of the passage of time when everything is coming to an end.