2007, Austria/Czechoslovakia/Denmark/France/Hungary/
Ireland/Italy/Sweden/UK
Shorts
READ THE REVIEW AT The Desert Sun.
Extended review:
Can one glimpse cinematic greatness in less than 30 minutes? Cinema16 attempts to answer in the affirmative with two discs that challenge a format often relegated to an obscure Oscar category.
With the European Short Films set, film lovers may view established filmmakers in the raw. Not only do the shorts provide a hint of the directors during experimental stages, but commentary tracks reveal their methods and criticism of their own work. However, these shorts are anything but amateur.
Brilliant and seamless animation blends a fantastical world with real figures in "The Man Without a Head" by Jan Solanas, previously and unmistakably a cinematographer. Solanas says of the medium, "Short films are one of the last real places for artistic freedom." In regards to balancing time and the flexibility for his own creativity, he states, "I spent four years to do it, but I did it without compromise."
A director who never lacks in creativity, Jan Svankmajer, delivers his 13th of 24 short film efforts in 1971's "Jabberwocky." With stop-motion images as nonsensical as the poem itself, he taps into the imaginative value of the shorts medium.
With "Wasp," Andrea Arnold presents a gritty view of the UK that would be later explored in Red Road. Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar) also explores a troubled UK setting in "Gasman," a peripheral view of the meeting of a father's two families.
Social commentary dives deep with Roy Andersson's much-acclaimed "World of Glory," which begins subtly in the modern day with a Nazi-style extermination. The film represents Sweden in 1990, which Andersson felt was akin to World War II-era Germany.
Bálint Kenyeres impresses with an amazing single long take that had to be filmed within a 20-minute window in order to earn the title, "Before Dawn." The attempted escape of immigrants is a powerful story despite a lack of dialogue.
Christopher Nolan’s (The Presitge) "Doodlebug," Virgil Widrich’s "Copyshop" and Mathieu Kassovitz’ (Gothika) "Fierrot Le Pou" utilize the popular short film technique of black and white film with no dialogue. Expression overrides the weight of excess story lines.
Ridley Scott limits his black and white short, 1958’s "Boy and Bicycle," to internal dialogue narrated by his brother and future director, Tony Scott. He delights in the fact that his first film was deemed too visual.
Lars von Trier and his editor laugh at film school concepts that were adhered to for "Nocturne." This is humorous considering his strict Dogme 95 filmmaking movement, eventually followed by Anders Thomas Jensen who directs "Election Night" about a confrontational cab ride. Another close-quarters short is "Six Shooter," the Oscar-winning first effort of playwright Martin McDonagh.
These sixteen shorts provide some of the best examples that size truly does not matter.