With rolling boulevards and twinkling candle-lit restaurants, Paris oozes romance. For me, the narrow streets and shutter-clad apartments somehow draw the city in around you, creating an unrivalled sense of intimacy. Share this with someone who captivates your heart, and it must be hard not to fall in love.

Now, take off those rose-tinted glasses and look a little closer at the Parisian streets. Soon you will start to see the cracks in the white-plaster facades. The stale smells around every corner. The pick-pockets. The expensive tourist traps. Bad coffee. Paris seems to lose its charm when the honeymoon period expires and reality hits.

Paris may be the perfect place, then, for a story to be told about a sudden plunge into a landscape you don't recognise; once full of love, now empty. In this film, we follow a lonely man (Tony Peppers) as he navigates the aftermath of a failed relationship. We are invited along on a hazy reflection of past love, and on a introspective exploration of a city, and a relationship, seen for the first time with new eyes.

Throughout the film, our main man seems to aimlessly ramble about the Parisian avenues. So deep in thought, his feet carry his body without purpose, as though any moment he might stop and regain awareness of his surroundings, only to realise he had wondered into some drab aspect of Paris. It is the perfect portrait of a man searching for answers of "why" or "how" things ended. How did he lose this love? The streets never seem to provide him a clear answer. All that is left of Paris, after love is stripped away, is grey concrete and expensive cocktails.

So, our wondering soul continues on a quest for answers, visiting museums and restaurants and, of course, "Le Tour Eiffel". There is an endless sense of restlessness; each landmark, once teaming with possibility, is now cast in shadow. The grey truth of the city leaks through, and so through it's blandness drives our protagonists ever-onward on a quest for solitude. The city no longer possesses the same spark, much like the dissolved relationship we explore.

Finally, after a wash of psychedelic colours, we see the boiler-suited explorer arrive in a spacious empty room, with cold and clinical lights eroding any details in the surrounding space. It is open and vast - I imagine the air-conditioning in this room to be set low. Then, we see the man approaching a mysterious space-age object placed delicately in the centre of this space. The energy of the noisy city might dilute your thoughts. Here, we see the protagonists arrive at a final destination; a new mindset where all complexity is stripped back, and the belly of the beast is placed centre stage.

One of the stand-out features of this film is the music. Two original tracks, produced Tony and Chaz together, set the tempo. The track "Pamela's Theme" gives a sense of emptiness I have rarely experienced with music before. It's something about those light, spacious punches of piano echoing out into a rubato silence which gives a deep-seated feeling of uncertainty. For me, it reflects the internal questioning felt by our lonely man, to which there are no answers. Then, there is "Metropolitan", whose lyrics perfectly describe the hazy confusion and endless rumination felt by our lonely wonderer.

I can't sleep. Indecision's got me up on my feet. Round and round until the dawn catches me.

"Pamela" captivated me as story with its roots in discovering the truth. Just like the Parisian skyline might trick you with its romantic facade, so life itself if also filled with the opportunity to dream too deeply. Tony and Chaz's dreamy film explores the ruminations and sense of chaos experienced when the thin veil of certainty is shattered, and you are plunged into the reality of life. It is in these moments where you are left to explore the true landscape that surrounds you.

Thanks for reading my exploration of Pamela. If you want to support Tony Peppers and all the great people behind this film, consider purchasing the digital album over on bandcamp! Peace!