More an experiment in sound than in cinema, as it
seems that the images were created to fit the soundtrack, which is full of
static and other strange electronic noises. Some of the imagery is stunning,
some of it is just weird, but Zamagni loses it in the final minute when it
becomes just a series of images which are weird, rather than intellectually
stimulating.
The Wind Phone
[Kristen Gerweck] ***
Several Japanese people visit a deserted phone box
close to a cliff near the sea to talk to people close to them. The
conversations are all very emotional, but director Kristen Gerweck challenges
us to figure out what is going on here. Once the word ‘tsunami’ popped up in
conversation, it wasn’t much of a challenge, which makes the rest of the film
somewhat pointless. The cast does a very good job, but, particularly because
this is based on a true story, Gerweck should have focused more on emotional
depth and less on trying to keep the audience guessing.
Venus Pool [Luciënne
Verner] **½
Frankly, most so-called ‘experimental’ films, in my
opinion, the result of throwing in a bunch of ideas and hoping something good
will come out of it. “Un Chien Andalou” and “Wavelength” are the standard to
which I hold all other experimental films. “Venus Pool” certainly has some
stunning images and is beautiful to watch, but it does feel like a collage of
separate images around a similar theme, rather than carefully edited elements
meant to create a whole. You may disagree, but I would argue that arthouse and
experimental films are meant to divide an audience. I acknowledge the visual
qualities, but find it disjointed.
Two Puddles [Timothy
Keeling] ***
This initially intriguing black comedy doesn’t quite
deliver on its promise and ends up with a badly directed twist which feels like
a cop-out. In some woodlands a dog falls into one puddle, but at exactly the
same time a young woman crawls out of another one, trying hard to catch her
breath. In a flashback we find out how the woman ended up in the puddle as we
follow a couple and their daughter falling prey to the same two puddles. It’s a
decent joke, but there isn’t much substance to it. Quick editing helps but the
twist at the end, frankly, doesn’t make a lot of sense.
How and Why Don Jose Dissipated [Moshe Ben-Avraham] ***½
A clumsy title for a quirkily animated short which
starts out as a tourist captures an annoying bee with the help of a glass of
pop soda. But the tourist is filled with remorse as he sees the bee struggling
to keep its head above water. When a duck intervenes, it is the starting point
for a long chase sequence leading is to the increasingly surreal fantasy world
created by direct Moshe Ben-Avraham. The meaning of it all is lost to me, but
it’s carefully crafted and at times breathtaking, in spite of its slow start.
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