While I feel it’s a bit thematically similar to last year’s Paperman there’s no doubt that The Blue Umbrella is another very strong Disney/Pixar short. It’s especially impressive in its animation technique, which looks nearly photo-realistic at times, and is, of course, visually solid as there is no dialogue.
Enjoy the opening here. The entire film is available on the Monsters University DVD and/or Blu-ray.
In my intermittent posts on the blog lately I have neglected to mention this year’s Oscar-nominated shorts. If you’d like to see the films either ahead of, or just after tomorrow’s Academy Award ceremonies. You can find information on a number of streaming/on demand options here.
This was a film I saw shortly after watching Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine. It’s a funny little short about a man and his chair who don’t understand one another (you’ll see what I mean). Also noteworthy is the score by Ravi Shankar.
After a bit of an unexpected hiatus we are officially back with Short Film Saturday. I return with a a short made by a Twitter compatriot of mine Alex Hunt. It’s a quick glimpse into a moment in a teacher’s life and her ruminating on incidences in her class with a problematic student. With documentaries like Waiting for ‘Superman’ the institutional issues are examined, and even then it can be easy to lose sight of the individual and what they attempt to do. This is a short tale that reflects a moment where doubt creeps in and a teacher wonders whether she did all she can for a student, one that is a “problem child” and it’s quite well done.
The last time I did a short film post it was just after Thanksgiving, and though a great film it wasn’t really one that jibes with the holiday mood. I now bring you one that though a little bittersweet does have it’s uplifting side and is holiday season appropriate! It comes from Zachary Maxwell again this time writing Santa about his doubts. It’s quick, sweet and should get most anyone into the holiday spirit.
I recently saw a PSA entitled “What if Straight Were Gay?” However, a piece that short doesn’t have the time to take the facts and reverse the players. This 20-minute short does and it thinks of virtually everything.
This film is not rated by the MPAA or any other body so far as I know. Viewer discretion is advised.
Since he’s a past honoree of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and an all-around great filmmaker, I like to feature Werner Herzog whenever possible. This is a short but effective PSA and mind you we’ve all seen many of them and in the wrong hands they’re overwrought. Here it’s simple, effective and moving.
I considered posting this in June but as significant a statement as this was not only about sexuality but about gun violence and bullying, I wanted to minimize the tragic albeit significant films or videos I posted in connection to what is LGBT Pride Month. However, this short film, which is also a music video with a significant and cinematic narrative, is also helmed by noted director Xavier Dolan so I figured it’d fit to be posted here.
Please note that this video has not been rated but was removed from French TV and the cause of controversy so viewer discretion is advised.
Whenever possible I like to tie these selections to an upcoming holiday. In the US November 11th is Veteran’s Day and worldwide it is Remembrance Day. This film dramatizes a poem entitle “Why Wear a Poppy” which discusses the significance of the latter holiday’s symbol. This film does start a tad shakily, but when it enters the poem it hits its stride and makes the strong decision to not return to class and ends with the poems end, which makes it all the more powerful.
Jean Vigo is perhaps the most proportionally influential filmmaker of all-time based on his small body of work. His penultimate film, of only four, was the following short.
An essay on Criterion about it states a few things well right at the outset:
French sociologist Roger Caillois proposed that every form of human recreation could be placed somewhere on a continuum between two terms: ludus and paidia. The first of these represents games defined almost wholly by their rule systems. Crossword puzzles and chess might lie near the ludic extreme. Paidia, by contrast, is sheer tumult, a realm of spontaneous roles and invention and a ceaseless overturning of bodies. If one were to assign an emblematic sound to paidia, it could only be that which opens Zéro de conduite (1933): the screams of kids at recess, a mass of voices expressing nothing beyond the creative energies of play in and for itself.
As Kite goes on to discuss some of the design and the kismet behind this film’s design one can see by choice and chance a precursor to the Nouvelle Vague due to some of the naturalistic filmmaking choices. The not immediately tangible plot, a challenge to conventional structure and the rebellious, dangerous nature of the tale itself all play into that. By AMPAS standards this film is actually a feature, but few titles ever fit into this mid-range and being about half as long as most features I think it applies as a short and is fairly important one.
To view this film please visit this link.
