Refused Reflection
Key art
Prologue
A man stands at a tarnished mirror. His face and the face in the glass are already out of agreement: his mouth is closed, the glass mouth is slightly open.
Watch
The screening is not on this page
2:57 · 16:9 · not filed.
One line
Before the synopsis
He waits to see if the glass will close.
Synopsis
Dream Logic · Standalone
A tall mirror on an iron stand nearby is clean, and in that one the raised hand does not rise. The reflection keeps both hands down. The clean glass is more exact than the tarnished one and still refuses the gesture.
The tarnished mouth stays slightly open. The clean reflection's hands stay down.
Neither glass apologizes by catching up. He goes to a basin where the water is still enough to be a mirror and presses his hands to it. The reflection breaks into rings and does not gather back into a face.
Extended sequence
After the cut
The rings reach the porcelain and die. The water goes still again and shows the ceiling, not his mouth. He returns to the tall glass.
A steaming handprint is already on the dark surface. His own hand is still an inch away, still reaching, and then he lets it drop. The print does not fade at the speed of ordinary steam.
Figures in the frame
Kept at the edge
His dropped hand does not match it. The print is a left where his reach was a right, or simply a hand that is not currently his. Farther down the room, a line of hooded figures stands before one large mirror.
Their reflections are coats only, with no faces attempted. Hoods in the glass are empty dark. The figures do not push the hoods back to force a face.
Codex fragment
The reflection's hands stay in its pockets. Snow continues in the mirror, and none of it lands on the papers. The radio stays silent. The steaming print on the tall glass slowly loses its edge and does not disappear before he looks away from it and back.
The scenario is filed in the Codex.
Sound of Imagination
The tarnished mouth stays open a fraction. The basin, still again, keeps the ceiling. The hooded line keeps its coat-only reflections. He does not raise a hand a second time to see if any glass has changed its mind.
Showcase
Object from the room
Beside the man's stand, stacked papers and a radio sit in the dry room. Snow shows in his glass, falling through a place the room does not have.
The snow does not pile on the iron stand. It exists only in the reflection. His hands stay at his sides.
The Craft
Image · motion · sound
The room stays dry where he stands and wintry only in the glass. No flake crosses onto the stacked papers.
No face fills a hooded reflection. The refused gestures remain refused: mouth, hands, and a print that arrived before the hand.
Read it as written. The scenario.
Filed in The Houses
Dream & Symbol · Dream Logic
Refused Reflection is filed under Dream & Symbol in Dream Logic. A house film. The house keeps the climate. The climate keeps this title.
The next room
After this filing
He remains with his hands at his sides, and the mirrors continue to keep a version of the room the room itself will not perform. The next room is Growing Doors.
After the frame
Mark · keep · letter
Released rooms keep a mark from one to five, a keep on this device, and letters that stay with the page after the feed has moved on. Refused Reflection is ready.
Letters under the frame
The Archivist · held
Filed in the archive. The page does not expire.