Point of view
For his first fiction feature, Raymond Depardon chooses a radical device to direct the passionate love of a man for a woman: never see him never hear him; he is only present thanks to his voice-over and the camera-glances of this woman. Kind of a shape of a subjective point of view is anchored in the first sequences. Yet, despite a hand-held shot, sound and visual clues strangely disturb this subjective point of view; an unexpected objective internal sound linked to the female character and the questions asked to the voice-over-character remain unanswered. The audience is imperceptibly led to ask itself questions on the status of this voice-over: varying time-scale, « improbable dialogue » between voice-over and voice-in, mere existence of this voice over character... In Empty Quarter, the voice-over becomes a real character telling a story which is both lived and fantasized.
Source : narratologie.revues.org