Short Films - suggestions and help

IdleRich

IdleRich
I need to watch everything properly, apologies for not doing it yet. Maybe I will pull a few of these together to be one film on Weds. To be perfectly truthful I only have one definite as yet which is the one that this guy Iosu sent me, the follow up to Life in XXIst Century.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
I need to watch everything properly, apologies for not doing it yet. Maybe I will pull ,
when i was looking for links of these last night i thought that they really lost something on youtube, they're obviously very visual and they look a lot better on the criterion platform. there's a free trial thing, that's how i watched them. except the last one, the long one about the subway, i think that was on the amazon streaming thing.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I feel a bit bad cos for the first night I did a load of last minute YouTube steals that I really got away with cos my audience is not really that well educated in short films, second time though I did it properly spending time and effort tracking down good copies of hard to source films... and predictably enough, despite all my good intentions, I'm back to the first model for this third time round. Noone will know, but I will know.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I watched and enjoyed Daybreak Express anyhow. Got a few choices to make regarding weds film night...

First name on the team sheet is the follow up to Life in the XXIst Century by my friend Iosu, he's sent me it and his first film went down really well so I'm showing it unseen.

Next; I really like the feature films of Czech animator Karel Zeman, I guess his films lack the Freudian references and ultimately depth of those of his more famous contemporary Svankmaijer, but in terms of the animation and the way they look I prefer them... for eg



And I've found a beautiful short he did called Inspiration which will fit in nicely.

One of the best short stories I've read is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, it's noteworthy for being the earliest I've ever read to employ a device that has since been used in many films and books such as Carnival of Souls and The The Third Policeman.

Kurt Vonnegut famously said "I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read the greatest American short story, which is 'Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' by Ambrose Bierce." - and I expect most Lisbonites would be twerps in Vonnegut's book - I'm not gonna read them the story, but there is a highly regarded short film adaptation and I'm thinking to show that.

Next up is (maybe) one I'm in two minds about as it's far more mainstream than anything I've considered showing before. But... it's a good film and, even though it won an Oscar, I can't imagine many will have seen it. It's called Curfew* and it's about a NY Julie hipster type who at the start of the film has just taken a load of pills and is in the process of slitting his wrists when his bossy high-flying sister phones and demands that he looks after her annoyingly precocious daughter for the evening. So our hero binds up his wrists and drags the child round a load of unsuitable places with him - over the course of the evening, while he (and we) experience hallucinations due to the pills he bonds with the irritating brat and finds, predictably yet still touchingly, redemption through looking after her.
I am really unsure about whether or not to show it as it's far from underground, but then part of me likes the idea of being completely varied and showing glossy Hollywood stuff as well as Belgian student movies from the seventies, as long as they are good... what do you guys think?

Oh, almost forgot, gonna show Street of Crocodiles - the Quay Brothers animated loose adaptation of the book by Bruno Schulz.

After all of those I've decided to show Le Grand Depart with the sound down and the DJ playing, that way everyone can experience the beautiful psychedelic imagery and see a purple and green cat-headed man sexually assaulting red riding hood before joining a cult and going to space on a raft - but without getting bored because they have to sit in silence through the slow bits.



*After the success of the short they remade it at feature length - called Before I Disappear - but although it's not exactly bad, the padding is unnecessary, plus the child actress has got noticeably older in the intervening time so the dynamic changes.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Just so I can keep track and remember what I've shown and so anyone else can recreate them if they should so desire

Month One
La Cabina (Antonio Mercero)
The Mascot (Starewicz)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren)
Visa de Censure X (Pierre Clementi)

Month 2
The Black Tower (John Smith)
Life in the XXIst Century (Iosu Vakerizzo)
La Fee Sanginuaire (Roland Lethem)
Foetal Attraction (Roz Gomersall)

Month 3
Curfew (Shawn Christensen)
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Long Live the WACP (Iosu Vakerizzo)s c
Street of Crocodiles (Brothers Quay)
Le Grand Depart (Martial Raysse)

So far - touch wood - it seems to be going surprisingly well with a slight increase in numbers each time and several punters coming back after their first visit. I think I might do a section with five or six short films stuck together next time so I can use some of the recommendations in this thread, but please do keep them coming. Also, if anyone is interested, I think that the ones that have gone down the best have been La Cabina, The Black Tower and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - although really it's hard to tell, certainly the above three films all kinda reinforced their quality when I saw them again in a dark room as intended.
 

version

Well-known member
A couple of people drive from NYC to LA with a camera in the back seat. There's no dialogue, just the radio. It's ace. I thought it might be a bit dull, but it flew by. A real time capsule.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I will check it then. I've just watched about 30 short horror and/or surreal films, mostly underwhelming despite the rapturous reviews. A few gems in there, but maybe something based in reality will be a welcome palate cleanser.

No-one can say I'm not putting in the effort to find stuff this month anyway...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
This one is actually very profound, I'd recommend this to any of you - best you watch it cold, don't look it up at all. Think it won an award at Sundance or similar.

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I'm struggling this month guys. I really need someone to suggest a really good, weird film that is ideally about twenty-five minutes long.
 

version

Well-known member
I watched one called The Black Tower the other night. I wasn't that into it, but you might be. It's 23 minutes.

"A man finds himself haunted by a mysterious black tower in London that appears to follow him wherever he goes."

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I watched one called The Black Tower the other night. I wasn't that into it, but you might be. It's 23 minutes.

"A man finds himself haunted by a mysterious black tower in London that appears to follow him wherever he goes."

You're right in your assessment, that's exactly the kind of thing I like and it's perfect for the night. That's why I showed it on the second night we did.

But you've nailed it, not just in terms of my taste, it was also well received by those who came, so if you can suggest anything else that you think feels the same as this then please tell me.

But what did you not like about it? I thought it was a very interesting concept that was cleverly conveyed with minimal resources. I liked that it was almost a story that could have been on the radio... but not quite. Also little tricks like the voices doubling up when he's reading a wet newspaper and the print comes through. Genuine humour in moments despite the whole being an unsettling and convincing portrayal of depression or perhaps madness.

I did like it more cos it was set in streets I used to walk down, but I was reassured by the response from attendees that it wasn't just that that made it good.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
You're right in your assessment, that's exactly the kind of thing I like and it's perfect for the night. That's why I showed it on the second night we did.

But you've nailed it, not just in terms of my taste, it was also well received by those who came, so if you can suggest anything else that you think feels the same as this then please tell me.
Unless you knew we showed it and you're taking the piss of course.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
There is one film that I'd like to watch again and consider whether it's suitable, but unfortunately I can't remember the title. I'm going to describe it and if anyone knows what I'm talking about can you please let me know the name. It's a low-budget, probably even zero-budget sci-fi film which as I remember has no special fx at all. It's like Primer in that it just explains what is happening and (I think) still manages to be effective. It's sort of noteworthy in that it's the same idea that they used (copied?) in Groundhog Day (though obviously without all the shitty schmaltz and that stupid smug asshole that everyone pretends to love), the protagonist is trapped in a single day, doomed to live through it and then get timetravelled back to the same starting point and live through it again. Now, I have a feeling that the start point is something like two thirty in the afternoon for some reason, and I also have a feeling that that time also gives the film its name. But I could be wrong cos I've google all kinds of stuff like "Groundhog day type film Fourteen twenty three in the afternoon" with no results whatsoever. But please if that rings a bell for anyone let me know.
 
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