Short Film Reviews ’03
ALSO: 11'09"01 | THE ANIMATRIX
On this page - LLGFF SHORTS: ALL FOR ONE | BILL | GINGER BEER |
THE JUDAS KISS | NARCISSE ESSAI | THE REVELATION | TOUCH |
TWO MINUTES AFTER MIDNIGHT | THE VISITOR Back to the SHADOWS FILM FEST page • last update 16.Apr.03
LLGFF SHORT FILMS
Any chance to see short films on a big screen should be siezed upon!
REVIEWS BY RICH CLINE
NARCISSE ESSAIdir Louis Dupont; with Samuel Ganesh • 02/Fr 3m
The director based this short on the Greek myth about a guy who's incapable of loving anyone and falls in love with his own image. OK, fine. This merely shows a young man waking up and then watching himself in the mirror as he wees, then masturbates, then has a short chat with his mother on the phone. It's fairly pointless, really, although it does capture a certain sense of loneliness and isolation ... and in a way how self-love is a deadend. All in three minutes? Well, maybe I was trying to find a reason for this short to exist. 19.Mar.03 llgff
dir Jan Otto Wiig; scr Birgitte Bratseth; with Simen Scedal, Emilio Solna, Mari Jerstad, Frida Ostby Hansen, Ilker Durum, Vivi Brit Klette • 01/Nor 4m
This cleverly filmed short centres on a four young kids playing doctor, dressing up and role-playing as adults. It's cloaked in innocence, with glimpses of aggression as they fit into established, accepted patterns. They spill onto the streets and witness something that challenges the stereotypes they have accepted. It's beautifully filmed and edited, completely wordless and yet it says a lot about how we inflict both expectations and confusion on children. There's some very controversial imagery here if you look closely -- and it's well worth looking very closely! 19.Mar.03 llgff
TOUCHdir-scr Jeremy Podeswa; with Brendan Fletcher, Randy Hughson, Linda Griffiths, Milo Puerta, Daniel Macivor, Fiona Highet • 01/Can 29m
This half-hour Canadian short features the gifted Fletcher as a victim of abuse who can't escape the cycle of violence. We see everything from his tortured mind, and it's dreamlike and ethereal, stunningly well photographed and directed with aching honesty and insight. Fletcher plays a 16-year-old who has just been rescued from eight years of torture and imprisonment, perhaps by his abusive parents. He is unable to accept his foster parents, because they don't offer him the "touch" of violence that he now associates with love, so he turns to the streets, working as a prostitute and goading his tricks into beating him. This makes it sound so much more simple and straightforward than it is; the film hauntingly gets into his head, and takes us there as well. It's terrifying, revealing and powerfully moving ... and deserves as wide a distribution as possible. 19.Mar.03 llgff
THE VISITORdir-scr Dan Castle • 02/Australia 30m
This beautifully produced half-hour short centres on an aging writer living right near the beach, trying to put his thoughts on paper when he's distracted by a group of rowdy surfers. Later he watches the one remaining surfer, who reminds him of his long-lost ex who he's been avoiding lately, for reasons for reasons that slowly become clear. What follows is both a strangely surprising series of events and a walk down memory lane. It's a provocative, emotional and thoughful film, very well-played by the cast (I can't find details of the actors involved) and open handed enough to let us draw from the film whatever we find there. 13.Apr.03 llgff
dir Joseph Anderson; with Gung • 00/Thailand 9m
I've no clue what the point is here, besides showing what might go on in a Thai hotel room just metres away from sunbathing tourists. This is just a stream of video--choppily edited--in which a Thai guy (Gung) enters a hotel room, strips off his clothes, lies on a bed, takes a shower, gets dressed and leaves. There's no dialog at all as the camera follows him around the room and lingers lovingly on his body. It's far too long and we're never really sure if it's meant to say something about obsession. Or prostitution maybe? 15.Apr.03 llgff
ALL FOR ONE [Comme une Seul Homme]dir Jean-Louis Gonnet; with Racing Club Vichy Rugby • 01/France 15m
For 15 minutes, a camera prowls through a rugby team's locker room before the match begins, catching nervous faces, team camaraderie and tensions, as the players get dressed, have massages, pace around, listen to the coach's motivational speech, shower and pee on the floor. It's very physical, catching slight glimpses and the emotions behind the eyes. Intriguing but not terribly original or meaningful. 15.Apr.03 llgff
LLGFF: THREE BY SEAMUS REA
REVIEWS BY RICH CLINE
GINGER BEERdir Seamus Rea; scr Andy Seale; with Michael Leslie, Marcus Palfour, Karen DaSilva, Noreen Berry, Shersden Miller, Bryan Bale, Ruth Kavanagh • 00/UK 17m
This genuinely engaging romantic comedy centres on a nebbish teacher (Leslie) at an agricultural college who studies ballroom dancing by night. His students taunt him for being gay (the film's title refers to Cockney rhyming slang), but he quietly continues his studies, all the while hoping for a dance with the hunk he followed to the class to begin with. Obviously inspired by the Japanese hit Shall We Dance, this short is extremely well written, filmed and acted, maintaining the comic tone without ever becoming silly (well, until the inspired post-credits clip!). Nice music and dance too, including a sweet black and white fantasy segment. [Originally screened at the 2000 LLGFF] 14.Mar.03 llgff
TWO MINUTES AFTER MIDNIGHTdir-scr Seamus Rea; with Andrew Hinton Brown, Mark Wakeling, Adrian Bouchet, Nigel Shipp, Alex King • 03/UK 12m
A companion piece with The Judas Kiss, this magical comedy takes place over one evening in a gay nightclub, where a guy (Brown) fails to chat up a hunk and runs off to the toilet to wallow in self pity. There he meets an angel (Wakeling) who grants him the ability to be the person of anyone's dreams ... but their dreams aren't exactly what he expects. Genuinely witty and funny, the film keeps us laughing while it gently makes its point. Sometimes a bit broad and goofy, sometimes a little too obvious--but it's also extremely well directed, edited and performed; it looks like a proper mini-feature. And it even has a clever Twilight Zone sting in its tail. 14.Mar.03 llgff
THE JUDAS KISSdir-scr Seamus Rea; with Dominic Power • 03/UK 12m
This emotive short film takes place during a few seconds on the same night in the same London nightclub as Two Minutes After Midnight, but thematically it's much more grounded in the human heart as a man (Power) watches his boyfriend snogging a stranger. Handel's aria 'Sherza Infida' takes over the soundtrack as we spiral through this young man's mind, focussing on his relationship with his partner as well as his father. There's no dialog, just thoughts and feelings--and it's extremely effective, especially since, again, Rea shoots it with the highest production values available. It looks terrific! And it really gets under the skin emotionally. 14.Mar.03 llgff
