Films Watched

Along with the idea that I posted for my own film clip earlier this week, I have also been watching a bunch of films that I think may suit my project in terms of character driven pieces of work that do not give away much about the character but allow for me to shape an idea of that character.
The films I've watched have consisted mainly of foreign cinema as I'd like to use something that will be less known to the demographic that will be tested on.

The films that I have so far been looking at include:
Amelie
The Big Picture
Norwegian Wood
True Adolescents
Lost in Translation

True Adolescents was the first that I have actually picked apart into a proper story... here is what I have come up with:

In the clip we see a character (male, 30's) pop his head out from a tent where he has spent the night, he looks rough and tired. As he leaves the tent he urinates, looking around at the empty campsite that surrounds him wondering where everyone else is (he has been looking after two kids). He begins shouting for the kids before starting to search the nearby area. He walks into a forest, weary. He continues to look before heading back to the campsite, pacing forward and back.

The storyline that came to my head was that this character is a possible father figure. He wakes up after a rough night, his outside urinating symbolising his happy-go-lucky attitude and the feeling that he is one with nature. Suddenly as he checks the campsite he becomes concerned as to the whereabouts of his kids. His concerns start to rise as he enters the forest. As he pauses in the forest area, he realises that the kids may have gone, lost, never to be found in this vast landscape before him. This is where this characters musical theme begins to take a dark turn. As he heads back to the campsite and paces back and forward, the audience will hear the edge that has been forced upon the character - what has happened to the kids and will he ever see them again?

The second storyline for the scene could be that this rough character is an antagonist who has done something to or with the children, possibly a kidnapping, possibly a murder etc. Does the character possibly have a split personality? As the character begins to look for the kids, the audience is meant to start to sympathise with him. Maybe this is a guy who has just lost his way in life, maybe there were never any kids to start, he's alone and wants the feeling that there has been someone with him, maybe it is infact this character who is missing.

There are negative aspects to this clip that I have instantly recognised. First and foremost the clip is rather short (only one minute in length). This doesn't lend enough time to establishing a character theme before manipulating it fluently enough for the audience to feel the change in the character.
The character himself doesn't lend to being portrayed as an evil character. He does look like he could be a lost soul but his facial expressions and feelings associated with those lean towards one side for the duration of the clip as opposed to seeing two sides of the character or having the character emotionless to allow the music to tell us how the character should be portrayed.
The realisation of being lost could occur at different points of the clip but by the nature of the narrative will always have to occur. This doesn't give a lot of change to the stories and doesn't allow for a wide range of thoughts and feelings concerning the character.

I do not believe that his clip is the most suitable of clips for my project, it is however only my first dissection and one that has made me think about the traits that I would like to see in the film clip that I choose. I know I need one of longer length and one that lends to a multitude of feelings for me to precisely know where i would like to take the story and how.