One of the first Korsakow film’s I’ve seen, Born to Die essentially keeps its entire focus on one girl, who is either in the shot taking her make-up off and applying it. The film opens with a section from Lana Del Ray’s song ‘Born to Die’. You then have the option of choosing three thumbnails from below the main video screen.

The first thumbnail I clicked on showed the lead character, a girl, wiping off heavy make up, starting with her eye shadow. As I progressed, it showed mainly more of the girl applying heavy make up to herself, but often I did stumble upon clips of her removing make up. It took a while, but I ended up finding among the thumbnails a possible ‘starting point’ for the girl, as the shot shows her with no make-up at all and her hair is undone. The clip goes on to show the girl tying her hair up, getting ready to doll herself up.

Each clip is cropped to a complete square look, and framed to look like you’re looking at a mirror.

I liked what the film was trying to say, as it felt like the makers were trying to create a commentary on the way girls use make-up before going out as a mask and that sometimes they completely change their mind about it – hence the clips of her removing make-up. It can be compared to clothes as well. With the lyrics from the song, I think it was there to emphasise the way young people are, and to almost have a ‘YOLO’ type message. That being said, I wish the clips were more ordered, as it was confusing to have certain shots of the character putting on make-up at an early stage right next to a clip of her removing her full make-up.

Link: http://vogmae.net.au/classworks/media/2012/kfilms/born-to-die/