The lack of quality short films is a testament to the difficulty of the format.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
While the exact percentage can´t be calculated, it is safe to say that the majority of feature films released each year are stinkers; I say this with confidence, having just returned from seeing "Leatherheads." However, the hit rate among full-length films dwarfs the success rate among short films. In several years of film school, I can count the number of good short student films I saw on one hand, with a few fingers left over for typing.
This is due, in part, to the fact that the entry barrier for making a short film is quite small, almost non-existent in today´s digital age, and distribution requires nothing more than a quick You Tube upload. Mostly, however, I think the lack of quality short films is a testament to the difficulty of the format. In a feature film, you have much more leeway; a bad scene or two can be covered up in two hours of running time; do the same in a ten-minute film and you´re doomed.
Of the quality short films I have seen (student or otherwise), the majority have been either documentaries or experimental films. "We Have Decided Not to Die" (2004), directed by Daniel Askill, is one of two films in the collection "The World According to Shorts" that could be categorized as experimental, and it´s one of the best shorts of the group. Askill´s film is a study of bodies at rest or in movement. Using slow-motion as well as some slick digital editing, Askill sets his camera on three separate characters (each in different chapters or "rituals"), providing a close-up view of their faces and bodies at various stages of movement. I found some of the herky-jerky editing annoying at times, particularly in the opening shots, but I was eventually won over by this visually arresting film.
My other favorite film from the program is just about the polar opposite of Askill´s movie. Jane Malaquias´ "The Old Woman´s Step" (2002) is a social realist film about and elderly Brazilian woman who sells her beloved chicken at market in order to buy a gift for her grandson. This might sound like a tear-jerker, but Malaquias lets the story unfold at a leisurely pace, in rhythm with the labored movements of her lead actress.
Norwegian director Hans Peter Molland is the closest to a "name" director on the DVD. An accomplished director of commercials, he also directed the claustrophobic drama "Zero Kelvin" (1995). His short "United We Stand" (2002) is, according to the DVD blurb inspired by Norway´s Labor Party. A group of old men go on a camping trip and stumble across a young woman trapped in a swamp. After rescuing here, they find themselves similarly stranded but with nobody left to help them. I´m afraid the political satire is lost in the translation, at least for this viewer, but the film won quite a few awards so I bet it´s funny if you know a little something about the Norwegian Labor Party.
Hugo Maza´s "La Perra" (2002) is a libidinous satire in Buñuelian style (w/ a touch of Bergman´s "Scenes from a Marriage" thrown in for good measure) about a horny upper-class couple who can only get off by fantasizing that their working-class maid is stealing from them. The husband and wife are seen almost exclusively in the bedroom in various states of dishabille as they spew classist venom and work themselves into a frenzy. It´s funny stuff, but wears thin even at 16 minutes running time.
Average user rating (1-5):
Not yet rated.
Not yet rated.
[release]23530[/release]