Berlin Shortfilm Festival: IC 02 “Love and Disaster”
Just like IC 05, the structure of this selection was pretty nice. It started off very, very strongly, which lightened up my mood a lot, and ended up with quite a cute story. All in all, this selection had only one weekness: The worst two of them were unfortunately also the longest.
Struck (USA 2008, 7:00)
If I hadn’t known about the concept before (The Hating Girl!), I would have loved the idea of the stuck arrow and the cute incidents that follow. Even then, it was a sweet story and ended up with quite a delightful scene. I think it’s because the facial expression of the guy who played Cupid. XD
Paul Rondin est… Paul Rondin (France 2008, 10:00)
I think we ended up establishing that this is the best short film of all. It had everything necessarily: A truly charming main character, a nice setting and the most adorable punchline. I really want to see this again.
Otto & Stella (Denmark 2008, 4:36)
This is one of those movies that I didn’t understood what the point was… until the absolutely lovely end. Awww. Perhaps I was simply too stupid to foresee the end, but I really have found it to be a cute surprise.
How I learned to love Richard Gere (UK 2008, 12:00)
So “Shall we dance?” is supposed to be a good movie? I seriously doubt it, and I actually was surprised to see how many movies with him I actually like. However, just like how Brad Pitt is always outshined by his partners, Richard Gere is nothing compared to Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman) or Edward Norton (Primal Fear) after all.
By the way, Mr. Graffam, I don’t like Richard Gere either. He’s just… not very good. ;)
John and Karen (UK 2007, 3:30)
It does look cute, but for some reason I’m not really fond of the drawing style. And, the story was nice but nothing special. That’s it.
Preguntas Frecuentes (Spain 2005, 14:00)
Chrrrpsshhhhh. It wasn’t really late when we watched this, but I realized that I have been spending 3 hours in the movie theaters already – more than I ever did! Well, this film started off really nicely and had a great premise, only to disappoint heavily.
About Hate, Love & the Other One (Germany 2007, 1:00)
What the heck. I truly believe that repeating something multiple times makes you sound stupid.
Skal vi danse? (Norway 2007, 9:00)
Awwww. I really enjoyed the parallels in the story itself and its writer. It’s quite a brilliant idea in my book, and was executed very nicely. The only weakness this story had for me was its pointlessness: Ultimately, it was about nothing but a guy trying to ask the woman he likes to dance.
The Note (Czech Republic 2007, 4:20)
I think that the guy at the end looked better than the girl, hahaha. So yeah, I approve of this story, I wish I had a note like that as well. No decision-making whatsoever anymore! Hrr.
Na koncu ulicy (Poland 2007, 14:00)
Eek. What kind of nonsense. What infuriatingly lost 14 minutes of my life.
Lavatory Lovestory (Russia 2007, 9:00)
We had to run for the next screening, but then decided to stick with this. And how glad I was that we did. Sure, the animation wasn’t great (too comic-ish for my taste) and of course the story didn’t have any great depth, but it was a sweet love story.
oh.my.god, so many short films! that sounds like so much fun XD
The only short film I saw in the movie theater this year was a thai one called “Emerald”?
You’re absolutely right on the appropriateness of the love-theme in regards to shorts. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s recent feature “Three Times” is basically made up of three shorts, and I am certainly putting the first segment amongst my decade favorites, its unbelievably lovely (and THE most TAIWANESE thing EVER!)
So many indeed! There’s much more to come even… this blog will be flooded with them until the end of the week (which is today, haha).
Before this year, I have never really seen any short films in the cinema apart from those that get aired before some feature films, like in “Chicken Run” – and it’s actually pretty great to see them.
Your comment makes me want to watch “Three Times” so much now. So, what makes it taiwanese? XD
By the way, after sitting in small arthouse cinemas for so long, I really am craving for a large multiplex, hahaha.
heehee. well, the said segment of “Three Times” is set in a typical small Taiwanese town in the 60s (Is it Xin Chu? I don’t know, but I suspect so. I went to visit some relatives there this summer, and although the majority has been recently over-constructed, many small alleys, like those portrayed in the film, still exist), both actors are, like, Taiwanese pop-icons, the little road-trip taken by the male protagonist leads through all these typical Taiwanese landscapes, they also have a REALLY TYPICAL Taiwanese dinner at a nightmarket foodstall.
So yeah, it’s totally Taiwanese, haha. That segment reminded my mom a lot of her own childhood in Tainan…it’s kinda cute how Jiu Fen, which was apparently “revived” by the popularity of “City of Sadness” has all these random references to his films all over the place.
I see, how lovely! I can totally see how the locations would give it a taiwanese feel.
Actually I just researched the movie and realized that I have seen the chinese title somewhere… but where? Aaaah!