Kevin Desmond:
Short # 4: “Dennis”
Dennis, directed by Mads Matthiesen from Denmark, is a story of a shy bodybuilder who lives with his overbearing mother who is bitter at the world since her husband left her and is using guilt to keep Dennis away from the rest of the world. The story is a bittersweet tale of a man trying to get a life despite his mothers opposition, just to realize that he is treated just as a piece of meat or a joke wherever he goes.
The part of Dennis is played by Kim Kold, a real body builder who owns the screen and gives the character the subtle, beautiful nuances of a man who still has the soul of a child. Again, we come to the fact about casting being 80% of the battle and this short is further proof. Shot with natural lighting with 2 DV cameras, it still feels like a complete and utterly engrossing film.
Short # 5: ”I love Sarah Jane”
“I love Sarah Jane,” directed by Spencer Susser, is a story of a post-apocalyptic suburb in the future where zombies run wild and kids are left to fend for themselves. Despite the chaos of the wreckage around the town our little male hero is out to win the heart of his little crush, Sarah Jane.
Spencer Susser is a commercial director in Australia and obviously had a lot of resources and favors at his disposal. The short was shot with a Viper HD camera and has some really phenomenal effects, make-up, and, to top it off, he had a relatively unknown but brilliant cast of kids. In the post-screening Q&A the director said he is planning to turn the short into a feature. Following in the footsteps of Shaun of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead, I think this could be another potential hit and we will definitely see a lot more from Spencer Susser.
Concluding thoughts of LAFF Shorts Program 3:
Yatin Parkhani:
With the exception of the first documentary, the remaining shorts were good on different levels. (With the exception of one short that wasn’t mentioned before which was about old ladies smoking and was only mildly interesting. Thankfully, this was a very short short that was clearly filler.)
Kevin Desmond:
This was probably the best group of shorts I have ever seen. They were all very well written, directed and acted. None of the shorts were particularly low budget or hastily put together (with the exception of the docs) by any means, instead they were really well thought out and executed. These were the kind of pieces that could clearly get everyone involved more work.
Even I have done stuff in the past that is very fast and cheap, but this never turns out way you want it to. It might be good, but it’s not great. As a lesson, sometimes, planning out and taking your time can get you much better and fruitful results.
A Selection of Feature Films:
Yatin Parkhani:
Sonetaula (Italy/Sardinia; director: Salvatore Mereu)
Sardinia – a large island off Italy’s coast is famous for its wild mountains and entrenched honor-bound bandit-culture. In this poor land, blood feuds (i.e like the USA’s Hatfields and McCoys) go on for generations.
I had high expectations of this story -- a son’s quest to avenge his father’s unjust death set in a never before seen island culture where honor is everything. Basically this 2 1/2 hour film’s half-page synopsis was interesting on paper, but its main character suffers the narrative kiss of death – he has few human bonds in anything but evasive and barely sketched terms. This ennui – combined with long meanderings in rural life that lack magic, revelations or education – reduces the narrative into a camera following around a guy.
Covering the lean and dramatic years before, during and after World War 2, Sonetaula focuses on the small dramas of life on the island. Shot in a neo-realistic style (i.e. use of non-actors to achieve realistic performances, like The Bicycle Thief), by the 30 minute mark, it was apparent that the feature had turned good casting (the non-actor Francesco Falchetto had a nice debut) and an evocative location, period and conflict into a meandering narrative that killed my interest in the main character.
But I am getting ahead. Let’s talk about the story itself:
In their predawn, unelectrified, village home, we begin with a long take of our protagonist’s face– the teen Zuanne as he dully listens to his parents having sex. Later his father leaves on a bus, at which time Zuanne – to his bitter future regret (this I had to imply, it was never shown)– runs away from the bus before his dad can properly part. Years later, at his never-returned father’s death, Zuanne learns a truth the other tormenting villagers implied: his father died in jail, for a crime rival villagers possibly framed (or correctly fingered) him for.
Now an undefined passion burns in Zuanne – cool. Unfortunately, it dissipates in many slice-of-life moments alternatively concerning some domestic life with his mother, primitive/isolated sheep herding, and longing for something…vague. Not cool.
It is hard to feel concern for Zuanne when he does little but hang out with crusty sheep farmers in the mountains before he kills some teen rival’s sheep after he is convinced they stole one of his…and somehow dishonored or led to his father’s imprisonment. This point takes about 1 hour to build up to.
Zuanne’s revenge escalates into an arrest warrant and in turn, transforms the teen into a bandit (ala the 80s classic film ‘Legend of Billie Jean’ minus its strongly defined motivation). Seeking refuge from the cops, our protagonist hooks up with similar folk. When their bus robbery goes wrong, Zuanne escapes the cops and his legend as a bandit (somehow unmotivated by the actions we actually see) grows. After another hour of traipsing though monotonous mountains (and wondering where this is going, because he has shown little reason for us to care about this character), we learn the girl Zuanne is enamored with (who is an orphan living with his own mother) instead loves and marries someone else. She apparently never had any romantic feeling for Zuanne….nor would we the audience ever suspect she did from the interaction we saw they had. At this the film truly dies. That’s when I consciously realized what I had long suspected -- there is little good in Zuanne’s life and the next hour is waiting for the inevitable – his downfall. Yawn. It happens, there is a small narrative twist (hey dealing with narrative – almost a first in this film) with his betrayer, but we don’t really care because we haven’t cared for this character and his fate (except in the mildest forms) since the first act.
My overall impression is that while the actor playing the protagonist gave a good performance, the film does not travel well – its style screams ‘this is for Italians or Sardinians’ who will enjoy recognizing people in moving pictures who sound or act ‘authentic’—wrapped in a thin veneer of story. Here in the USA, in the indie film world we also have this tendency to want ultra authenticity. While this is not a bad desire, it is one I strive to understand that I am doing, and then clearly think about my specific ‘local’ audience—and its ‘inside’ knowledge.
I did see another movie, this one from France, called “The Heartbeat Detector,” which I decided not to review because it had some deep problems. As a filmmaker I know the pain of making a movie, so I congratulate the filmmaker for making the film. As to how good it was, well, I’ll let people make up their own minds. Personally, this was the first festival I’ve been to in which no one clapped at the end of a film. And this was the film which received no applause.
Kevin Desmond:
Even though I was saddened that I couldn’t personally see all the films at the festival, I was very pleased with the fact that I got to see some of the films which will probably get lost in the shuffle or get a limited release. As the technology gets cheaper and more and more talent comes out of every corner of the world, my advice to filmmakers will be to take the time and put in a little extra effort to tighten up your scripts and find the right person for the role. Take your time to shoot whether you have the money or not, because, in the end, this is what will define you.
