Lee Deaville's 'Waiting for the end of the World'

Lee Deaville’s ‘Waiting For the end of the World’ – Review

“One monotonous day is followed by another monotonous, identical day. The same things will happen, they will happen again—the same moments find us and leave us…”

This short film by indie film director Lee Deaville embarks upon a journey, where Petr (Robert Hawthorne) sets himself up in a sequence of events to get him through his night shift; just to make it to another day, another evening. Stacking boxes, checking the expiration dates on the milk and cans, all the while narrating his evening as if he’s giving special instructions for a Mission Impossible, sans the intricate locks and abnormal use of explosions to get our attention.

But what does get our attention is the unique camera direction and the focused cinematography that gives depth, and a sense of atmosphere, to the isolated surroundings. If viewed plainly, the viewer would neglect to analyze the subtle details: the precise rows of products that line the isles, the contrasts between the dimly lit and dark areas of the store—and Petr basking in the remote aspects of the market, finding ways to utilize the fixtures within his surroundings to adjust. Petr, finding comfort with complacency, modifying the stock within the aisles, using the bathroom, and taking his lunch in the dimly lit break-room, where the TV doesn’t work.

Just waiting for the world to end — to begin his shift and to do what he can just to make it through another evening, another monotonous night.

I can relate.

“A month passes and ushers in another month. One easily guesses the coming events; they are the boring ones of yesterday. And the morrow ends up not resembling a morrow anymore.” — Constantine P. Cavafy (1908)

Waiting for the End of the World won the Best Artist Film Award at Manchester’s Exposure Film Festival.

Reviews in Brief: Waiting For the End of the World on Blogcritics.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 14:19. It is filed under Movie reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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Colleen E says:

01/26/2011 at 22:07

Wonderful to see this kind of attention for the lonely people in the world. So much of our lives is spent at work, I love seeing films dedicated to our career lives. Firefighter pictures are my favorites–probably because they’re much more exciting than movies about working the night shift at a grocer’s. Still, this film looks great, so I’ll have to check it out. Probably, it will help me realize that I’m not the only one who feels terribly alone during my working life.