New Directors/New Films and Film Comment Selects 2015

[Chris Knipp]

SHORTS PROGRAM 2

Blurb descriptions in italics are followed by my comments.


HEARTLESS

Icarus
Nicholas Elliott, USA, 2014, DCP, 16m
Desire and emotion pervade this enigmatic hangout film in which a procession of
mystery men emerge ex nihilo and seek shelter in a young woman’s cabin. World
Premiere This seemed like a self-indulgent, opaque film whose symbolism of naked men out in the snow and bags with mens' names on them, men kissing, etc., made no sense. Tiresomely arty.

The Chicken
Una Gunjak, Germany/Croatia, 2014, DCP, 15m
Bosnian with English subtitles
Six-year-old Selma is forced to confront the realities of life during wartime after she
decides to let go of her birthday present. Set in Sarajevo in 1993, this does make sense and is well edited for movement, if with unnecessarily shaky camera. It concerns two women and a little girl in a war-torn city trying to enjoy a meal, though holding onto the main course could be life-threatening. This does tell a story. Promising material.

Heartless
Nara Normande & Tião, Brazil, 2014, DCP, 25m
Portuguese with English subtitles
These sun-kissed fragments of a coming-of-age tale follow a boy who, while on vacation
at a fishing village, finds himself entangled with an enigmatically nicknamed local girl.
U.S. Premiere The rough coverage of semi-feral boys at the beach (effective kid-wrangling) reminded me of the French-Algerian film Bloody Beans shown in the FSLC's Art of the Real last summer. But this is more conventional, if also at one point needlessly vulgar. Just okay.

I Remember Nothing
Zia Anger, USA, 2015, DCP, 18m
A student, unaware that she is epileptic, tries to get through another day. Structured in
five sections after the phases of a seizure. World Premiere
This has needless distractions and makes little sense. The lecture on stages of epileptic seizures is interfered with by pointless extra material. Annoying.

Discipline
Christophe M. Saber, Switzerland, 2014, DCP, 11m
French, German, Arabic, and Italian with English subtitles
In this biting comedy of manners, it really does take a village. Set in a Swiss convenience store run by an Egyptian, with another Egyptian, a Moroccan, and others. A well-off woman starts a fracas because a man slaps his little girl for disobeying him, and things get crazy. Comedy of cultural cross-currents and jumble of action in a small space is amusing, but pushed too far eventually so it becomes simply a mess.

We Will Stay in Touch About It
Jan Zabeil, Germany, 2015, DCP, 8m
After the shock of impact, reality suddenly seems out of reach. North American
Premiere Yes, this is haunting, if the spooky music and panning camera bit has been done a million times before. Accomplished.

Odessa Crash Test (Notes on Film 09)
Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Austria, 2014, DCP, 6m
An iconic moment from Battleship Potemkin, remixed and reimagined. U.S. Premiere This takes a great sequence in the history of cinema and reduces it to a sliding baby carriage and a falling baby, carried to a terrifying and sadistic, but basically repetitions and annoying, extreme. Avoid and watch Eisenstein's classic film instead.