I will go to next year’s again, if I can

Get Shorty 2008

The blog killed my blog post. Firefox is evil, WordPress is evil, the world is bad. Just as bad as the film was good though, hrr.

Now, let me get over it quickly again: Get Shorty is the name of the short film program in the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany. A selection of short films is being shown every year during the festival in an ~2 hours session. The tickets were quite expensive (8 euro after all), so Pixelmatsch, Shii and I only went to this short film thing as I am a big short film fan as you might have noticed by now. We are the Naruhodou trio!
On a side note, there were quite a few other films I have found interesting, like “The Chaser”. Perhaps one day, I’ll watch those too.

What I find particularily interesting about the Fantasy Filmfest is that the majority simply are horror flicks. When I read a forum thread about people complaining about laughters in suspenseful bloody scenes, I suddenly realized that people really watch this to get afraid. Personally I don’t enjoy that at all. Horror really is the type of film you will rarely find here on About Chocolate Parfait. A film has to be more than just scary if I should watch or even like it. Of course, the short film program had quite a few horror stories too – and I have tend to dislike them. But, the Fantasy Filmfest has also shown this live-action Death Note spin-off with L and the Neon Genesis Evangelion movie.

Another interesting point about these short films was that the viewers were expected to be proficient both in english and german. Many of the short films had english subtitles, and one was in german without subtitles at all. I didn’t even realize it because I’m so used to english subtitles, but it’s an interesting indication that most of the viewers are probably rather young (<30 years).

Since we went to the cinema theater, I can’t provide any screenshots as always, here’s my ranking of the films:

1. Arbeit für Alle (Germany 2008, 12 min)
In Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, the government installs the “Agentur für Arbeitsbetreuung”, where young people support elder people with their work so they can continue working until they get really old. After some funny action scenes, the protagonist, an old demon hunter in a wheelchair, finally explains why he is still working: His pension is not enough because his son is a voluntary worker and his grandchildren unpaid interns.
I think I could die of laughter if this film has been double as long and so dense of funny moments. This film directly speaks to the 20-25 year old rather qualified college student or recent graduate who are stuck in unpaid internships because they can’t find a job. I could rant on and on about this, explain the situation and why it is funny for me, but I am directly involved in the “Generation Praktikum”, I had no other choice than really enjoying this. Happy economy.
On a side note, this film was the point where I thought it would be really nice to make films myself. I want to make other people laugh like this too.

2. Occupations (Denmark 2007, 3 min)
A man is bored while watching the premiere of “Manderlay” by Lars von Trier, so he starts a stupid conversation with his neighbour. What he doesn’t know is that this neighbour is said Lars von Trier…
This film is actually directed by Lars von Trier, oh my gosh. I love Emolars, I really love him. I knew beforehand what this film would be about, but I didn’t expect it to turn out like *that*. Surely this film plays with the fact that people have to know that this guy actually is Lars von Trier which shows quite a bit of arrogance based on his popularity, but I don’t care. I was shocked (as this was the very first film) and two seconds later thoroughly amused. And I can’t get Lars von Trier’s smile out of my face, hehehe.
“I kill.”

3. Tile M for Murder (Lägg M För Mord, Sweden 2008, 8 min)
Adaptation of Death by Scrabble by Charlie Fish. Man hates his wife and feels so horribly bored during a Scrabble game that he wants to kill her.
Perhaps you might want to read the short story and take a look at the immensely crappy fan adaptations on Youtube. After seeing this great swedish film, I realized how incredibly bad all those Youtube attempts are. It was very interesting to see the same story, the same characters and the same dialogue in these different versions: “Tile M for Murder” aces all of them easily. Why? Well, it’s not because the film obviously had a higher budget or anything. It was because the hatred of the two characters for each other were brilliantly acted and the cinematography added a bunch to the creepy and dense atmosphere. The difference is astonishing. Seeing the difference between the bad amateur videos and this amazing short film made me realize how much impact directing and cinematography have on a film. It makes me want to learn how to make films even more now.
The original story is in english, but interestingly I have found the adaptation in swedish to be even better than the english original. “Choke” at the end has a much greater impact than “Death” in my opinion. I’m so glad we went to the Fantasy Filmfest.

4. The Saddest Boy in the World (Canada 2006, 14 min)
Young boy wants to kill himself on his birthday during his american-suburb-style birthday party, because he hates everyone and everyone hates him. Simply put, he’s the saddest boy in the world.
The colours of the film were so pinky and colourful as the humour was black. Arrrr. This film is just so incredibly evil and good! However, it didn’t make it into the top three for me because ultimately, I find a little bit *too* evil for my taste. I felt like watching “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, another childish looking evil-evil-evil film.
My favourite scene was the one in which the other students chose the guy in the wheelchair over him during sport class. That was SO evil and reminded me of myself (I was unpopular, small and weak, so what can I say?)

5. Even Pigeons go to Paradise (Même les oiseaux von au paradis, France 2007, 9 min)
Animated film. A priest visits an old french villager, trying to sell him a new machine that’ll forgive his sins. Then, Death appears.
This film is lovely, really. It’s absolutely greatly animated and the story is cute, funny and so… french! I don’t know what else to say about it, it’s so nice that it got nominated for the Oscar in 2007. So why don’t you watch it yourself?

6. Shuteye Hotel (USA 2007, 7 min)
Animated film. In the top room of a hotel in the middle of nowhere, people get killed in their sleep. Two policemen try to solve the mystery.
I have found the animation to be really stylish. I like this type of animation which makes me think of the list of artsy anime I have compiled. At the same time, the story wasn’t spectacular, but actually not bad. Surely this is a film where style goes over substance, but I have enjoyed this little film.

7. Because There Are Things You Never Forget (Por que hay cosas que nunca se olvidan, Spain 2008, 13 min)
A young italian boy got a new soccer ball. While he plays with his friends, the soccer ball falls into the garden of an old lady who picks it up and destroys it. The children are planning revenge.
First of all, this story was really funny and it was a good last film of the program. In that respect, this is better than Shuteye which is ranked higher simply because Shuteye Hotel has my “animation bonus”, heh. I didn’t like the end all that much, but the comedic aspects of this film were brilliantly done and made me laugh a few times. So it was a great time to watch this.
The very first thing that made me interested however was the fact that this is a spanish film, but is set in Italy. So the whole film is in italian with spanish and english subtitles. How unusual.

8. Killing Time (Las horas muertas, Spain 2007, 14 min)
Four young people, two guys and two girls, are hiding in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. A sniper is slowly shooting them off.
In general, I have found this film to be mediocre. I have found the ones ranked below this pretty bad and the ones over this really great, but it’s difficult to say anything else about “Killing Time” than that it was average. The atmosphere was good, the characters were good, it even was a bit suspenseful despite or maybe because of the slow-paced, atmosphere-building cinematography. I just completely failed to actually like this story.
PS. It’s interesting that the longest films (18 and 14 minutes) are also the ones I disliked the most.

9. Eater (USA 2007, 18 min)
Policeman tries to find the “Eater” who eats people’s insides and enters their bodies. Creepy as the Eater has taken his colleagues’s bodies.
It’s nicely executed really. I found it a little suspenseful, the effects were rather nicely done and the actors were actually okay. Now if only this weren’t another horror film with nothing behind it at all – not even anything psychological – I might have enjoyed it, but mindless stories always leave me a bit bored. Also, the film was pretty long.

10. Bitten (Morsure, Frankreich 2007, 14 min)
French woman runs through the forest and is chased by her husband. It turns out she caught a virus and kills everybody around her.
Nobody clapped. Really that’s what happened. While all the other films, especially the ones we have liked got quite a lot of applause, this was the only one where it was completely silent. Outspoken as I am, I whispered this observation to Pixelmatsch and Shii – and then we heard some more whisper and a few people clapping. It was pretty awkward but also subtly funny. I think that says everything about this pointless, not even scary horror flick which nearly made me fall asleep.