MoviePalaver: Oscar Shorts, Take 2

 

Last week I listed some places to see Oscar nominated short films. Those films -- and prior winners in the short film categories -- are now available on iTunes as well (for $1.99 each).  Before you purchase away, a caveat.

I went to the live action shorts at E Street last Sunday.  It was my first time out of the house other than to go to the doctor or the polls since I had knee surgery on January 31, so maybe I was feeling particularly vulnerable. Whatever the reason, I almost fainted during the second film.  I don't mean a big theatrical "would you please pass the jelly?" fainting spell.  I nearly blacked out.

"At Night,"a Danish film that clocked in at just under 40 minutes (evidently barely meeting the eligibility requirements for short film nominees), is about three young women dying of cancer in a hospital over the holidays.  It is as bleak and sad and gut-wrenching as that suggests.  Some ways into it I started feeling warm.  I took off my wool sweater, leaving me in a light t-shirt.  I was still warm. Then hot.  Then really hot.  And sweating.  And clammy.  Then I started hearing that szhuszhing noise you hear just before you hit the floor.  But what could I do?  Escaping the movie would have meant hobbling down the stairs in my crutches in the dark while on the brink of losing consciousness.  So I covered my face, was thankful I don't speak Danish, and waited . . . and waited . . .  and waited for it to be over.  I still don't know how it ended, but I suspect it will win on Sunday night.  In Salon, for example, Andrew O'Hehir says "Thanks to its serious theme and its exemplary execution, ["At Night"] should win the Oscar in a walk." And maybe it should.  Maybe the fact that the dialogue alone -- there was no violence or even invasive medical procedures on screen (while I was watching) -- was so intense and real that I almost fainted means that it is great art.  All I know is that I was relieved it was followed up with the silly, truly short, Italian movie "The Substitute" (which Salon called a "virtually unwatchable" "shtick-laden Italian high-school comedy").  Whatever.  It was just the ticket for me.

So my advice is go to the live action shorts, but after the first one (a sweet Belgian comedy called "Tanghi Argenti") step outside for some Milk Duds and don't come back for 40 minutes.  Or pick and choose which ones to see on iTunes  But vote for "At Night" in the pool.

By the way, the same Salon article says "If you haven't seen Peter Capaldi's 1994 short-Oscar winner, 'Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life,' seek it out immediately."  I wouldn't have had a clue what they were talking about, except that my friends S&B brought it by last week as part of a post-surgery care package.  (That coincidence concept is known as "poached eggs," but that's a topic for another post.)  O'Hehir is right -- it's terrific.  It's not available on iTunes, but is on Netflix.  (Bonus for mysterywriter and Lynn:  Kafka is played by Richard E. Grant, aka The Scarlet Pimpernel.)

Comments

[mysterywriter]

Sorry, Richard E. "Cold Fish" Grant--eugh! He was a horrible Scarlet Pimpernel. No, Lynn's and my all-time favorite Pimpernel was played by Anthony Andrews in the 1982 version. Lynn has been known to utter on random occasions, "The north country in the middle of the night? How bizarre!" Jane Seymour would be proud.

[mbpalaver]

Two Scarlet Pimpernels? Who knew?

[contessa]

Part of my misspent youth was watching too many old movies on TV, including the Leslie Howard 1930-something version of the Pimpernel. While he's playing the fop, he announces to friends that he's made up a poem about the Pimpernel "during the busiest time of the day," -- while tying his cravat:
"They seek him here,
They seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere!
Is he is Heaven,
Is he in Hell?
That damned elusive Pimpernel!"

Does Anthony Andrews recite poetry?

[mysterywriter]

Most definitely, but when they get to "hell", the people giggle because, of course, they could not utter such a coarse word. Ian McKellen plays a wonderful Chauvelin.