- 069. Watch 20 short films.
My watching choices were decided by keyword searches, intriguing looking thumbnails, random related finds, and just arbitrarily choosing things on a whim. Hopefully that means that I haven't ended up with twenty films that are all the same. Thanks goes to my friend Kei for linking me to the My French Film Festival site, where I watched all of the French shorts. And with that, in no particular order, here are the first ten films:
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| Short film 'Teaspoon' |
Title: Teaspoon (2015)
Director: Aban Bharucha Deohans
Language: Hindi
Genre: Family drama, drama
Runtime: 20 minutes
Plot: Kavita, husband Rajiv and his father, live together in an apartment. Kavita works from home as a cosmetics company representative and takes care of Rajiv's elderly, disabled father, whilst Rajiv travels a lot for his work. Due to her father-in-law, Kavita can rarely leave the house, as he cannot be left alone. When her father-in-law wants something, he has a habit of frequently tapping a teaspoon loudly, even if it's often just to complain or to have attention, rather than because actually needing anything. He never does it when Rajiv is home, and so Kavita's husband cannot understand her frustration. Due to this, the couple have an argument over dinner one night, which leads the story to take a darker turn.
Thoughts: This is very much a story about the way in which stress, lack of understanding, feeling powerless/trapped, and isolation can lead someone to do something completely out of their nature, which they ultimately regret/feel guilty over. The characters and their relationships were well-developed, the plot made sense and it had a conclusion that was sad, but somehow inevitable. The acting was a little shaky/melodramatic at times, but overall it was a good film.
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| Short film 'Nu' |
Title: Nu [Now] (2003)
Director: Simon Staho
Language: Swedish
Genre: Drama, experimental
Runtime: 29 minutes
Plot: A man and a woman meet in early 1960's and marry due to societal expectations. They have genuine affection for one another, but don't know how to interact, neither emotionally nor sexually, and they grow distant, even after having a child together. The husband meets another man and the two begin an affair. The wife is distraught, leading to distressing consequences.
Thoughts: The film is largely without dialogue, switches between the present (when they are much older) and the past, and has some experimental scenes. However, the plot is still very easy to understand and the film manages to convey emotion and interactions, even without dialogue. The acting is fairly solid and the cinematography is beautiful.
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| Short animation, 'World of Tomorrow' |
Title: World of Tomorrow (2015)
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Language: English
Genre: Sci-fi, drama, comedy, animation
Runtime: 17 minutes
Plot: A little girl is taken to her distant future, where a clone of herself gives her a tour of the "wonders" and technology of the time.
Thoughts: The animation style and Emily Prime's way of thinking/talking is simplistic, but effective. It contrasts well with the somewhat disturbing future world, being presented to a child not fully comprehending what is happening. The main character's voice actor was the director's four-year-old niece, who he recorded whilst she was playing, and built into the storyline. This means the dialogue is really natural and her responses to questions are exactly how a child that age would react. It brings comedy to an otherwise bleak view of things, which is very enjoyable.
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| 'Belle à croquer', short film |
Title: Belle à croquer [Delectable You] (2015)
Director: Axel Courtière
Language: French
Genre: Romance, comedy, surreal
Runtime: 15 minutes
Plot: Oscar Mongoût (play on words of "mon goût", French for "my taste") a gourmet cannibal, falls in love with his neighbour, Melle Carotte (Miss Carrot). However, when he finds out that she is a vegetarian, he becomes distressed as he has a phobia of vegetables. Miss Carrotte invites Oscar over for dinner one evening, and things take a dramatic turn.
Thoughts: The colourful cinematography and whimsical set design/costuming in this film are absolutely gorgeous! I suits the mood of the film well - bizarre, funny and quirky. Also, here is very little dialogue, but the feelings of the characters are made evident through facial expression, body language, and even use of music. It reminded me somewhat of old silent movies, but brought into glorious technicolour. Some of the themes in the film (semi-stalking, murder, cannibalism etc.) are actually quite dark, but the whole thing somehow manages to stay light-hearted and amusing.
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| 'Ettertanke', short film |
Title: Ettertanke [Afterthought] (20??)
Director: Axel Courtière
Language: Norwegian
Genre: Family drama, drama
Runtime: 7 minutes
Plot: Thomas struggles to reach out to his father, and to let go of a time long gone.
Thoughts: This is a very short film, but it manages to tell a fairly interesting story during that time. The pacing can seem a little slow at first, but it was necessary for character / situation establishing. For much of this film, it seems like Thomas is simply a discontent young man having problems with his family. However, during the last few minutes the truth is revealed and it completely changes all the scenes that have preceded it.
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| 'Uncanny Valley' short |
Title: Uncanny Valley (2015)
Director: Federico Heller
Language: English
Genre: Sci-fi, dystopian
Runtime: 9 minutes
Plot: "In the slums of the future, virtual reality junkies satisfy their violent impulses in online entertainment. An expert player discovers that the line between games and reality is starting to fade away." (3DAR's Vimeo)
Thoughts: The documentary style interviews with the players are a clever way of exploring the problems with the future society and each person's motivations for entering the virtual world, without overtly including it the film. The idea of blurring the lines between reality and the games is done very well, as at the end you're left unsure which people/characters really existed and which were simply virtual constructs. The soundtrack sounded very much like an action game soundtrack in places, which also helped to set the mood of explored ideas.
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| Short film, 'Planet ∞' |
Title: Planet ∞ (2017) [Alt. title: Planet Infinity]
Director: Momoko Seto
Language: N/A
Genre: Sci-fi, virtual reality, animation
Runtime: 7 minutes
Plot: "In a world in ruins, only fungi and mold grow among gigantic carcasses of dried-out insects. A meteorological change takes place as rain irrigates the barren planet, progressively flooding it. A new ecosystem grows in the water, in which giant carnivorous tadpoles thrive."
Thoughts: This was an interesting film to watch/experience. Throughout the various futuristic and fantastic environments you're able to move the camera around 360 degrees, enabling you to look at/focus on whatever you wish throughout. From giant fungi to ladybird rain to giant sea monsters, it's a fascinating world to explore and no two times watching it are the same.
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| 'Ámame por siempre' short |
Title: Please Love Me Forever (2016)
Director: Holy Fatma
Language: French
Genre: Romance, fantasy, horror
Runtime: 27 minutes
Plot: Lili, a 14-year-old albino girl, lives alone with her mother Claudie, who keeps her from the outside world under the guise of protecting her (from the sun and other people). Claudie is image-obsessed and replaces the aging parts of her face frequently, in her operating lab. Lili is forbidden from leaving the house, but manages to befriend her neighbour Lyesse. Lili dreams of being with Lyesse forever, but her intense love scares him and he rejects her. Isolated from the world, with only her mother's twisted worldview to guide her, Lili's devastation over the rejection leads her to take drastic measures to find out why Lysse doesn't love her...
Thoughts: The visuals in this film are enchanting and it looks quite beautiful. It's a horror with a fairytale-esque feel and some touches of body horror thrown in for good measure. But it isn't overly graphic and really it's a story about a girl who just wants to be loved. Lysse is only 16, which explains his less than subtle reaction to Lili's confession. Also, he tries to be her friend at first, even when he sees some very odd things at her house, and doesn't intentionally hurt her. So he didn't deserve what happened to him at all. Despite what Lili ends up doing, I felt bad for her too, because she genuinely doesn't understand that what she's doing is wrong until it's too late.
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| Controller short |
Title: Controller (控制者) (2012)
Director: Saman Kesh
Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
Genre: Sci-fi, action, romance
Runtime: 8 minutes
Plot: A girl that can control everything, perpetrates her own rescue by taking control of her boyfriend.
Thoughts: The plot was intriguing and action scenes and soundtrack were entertaining and I liked the ending. Also, the flashbacks of her relationship with her boyfriend were important for character building and to help the audience to care about the two of them, so I can understand why so many of them were included. However, whilst I realise that the film was only 8 minutes long, it would have been nice to have more information about why the girl was able to control everything in the first place. Apparently this short is being made into a full-length movie, so hopefully there will be more details and explanations in that. It was still an enjoyable watch though!
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| Short film 'The Birch' |
Title: The Birch (2016)
Director: Ben Franklin, Anthony Melton
Language: English
Genre: Horror, folk horror
Runtime: 5 minutes
Plot: "A bullied schoolboy takes drastic measures against his tormentor, summoning an ancient being in the woods using a spellbound book passed down through the generations of his family."
Thoughts: I adored the sound and effects/creature design in this short! Both were used sparingly throughout, but brought to the forefront of the film for the ending. This made it a great horror short that told a creepy story with both limited time and sparse dialogue.
And that concludes this section of the short film posts; I'll post the last 10 very soon!
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☆Thank you for imagining another part of this paracosm☆