If you have watched movies very seriously for very long, you have probably at some point wondered what it would be like if you made a film by rigging up someone's apartment with a bunch of cameras, turning them on, see what happens, and then later editing it down to documentary. A watered-down version of that is done on reality-TV shows, but that would make for a boring film if you take away all of the sensational stuff needed to make reality-TV shows watchable. But it is possible to construct a fictional film that takes the same realistic approach, but using actors, dialogue, set design, lighting, and composition of shots that goes into fictional films. The most famous example of that is Chantel Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was an obvious influence on Leap Year. Both films provide an intimate portrait of a young women by just showing what she does, day-to-day, with the camera never leaving her apartment. If the viewer pays attention, and if the director uses some intelligence, it can make for an absorbing portrayal of real life, in spite of the fact that it is actors on a film set. Leap Year is far more explicit about sex than Jeanne Dielmann..., but the film really isn't particularly erotic until the final scenes. All that nudity isn't to build her up as an object of lust, but rather to create a sense of intimacy with the character, to show what it's like to be her. She proves to be a pragmatic and unsentimental person, and probably has to be, given her life situation. You might find her life depressing, though there is a clear spirit there, a determination to do what she needs to do. However, the last part of the film becomes sensational and erotic, in an S/M way, living up to this film's reputation as an explicit sex film. If you are fascinated by film, and like to ponder what is cinematically possible, you may want to give this film a watch (as well as Jeanne Dielmann
).
