Al's Omniflick: The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Action

Saturday, February 15, 2014

The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Action

Just saw the Oscar Nominated Short Films from last year at a local theater and and as one would expect, the submissions were a mixed-bag, in content and quality. **Spoiler alert**

Helium (Denmark)-Anders Walter Dir.- A hospital janitor tends to a dying boy; telling him a fanciful story about a place in the sky where houses are held aloft by large balloons and dirigibles. Constructing a story with a conclusion the janitor must tell the boy before he dies, the janitor risks his job and that of a sympathetic doctor to offer the dying child a glimmer of hope. I liked Walter's film and its use of visual effects to create a sweet and fairy-tale-like story. A filmmaker can walk a tightrope with subject matter that can become tedious treacle if bungled, but Walter weaves something magical and memorable.

The Voorman Problem (UK)-Mark Gill Dir.- Starring British actors Martin Freeman and Tom Hollander, Gills film is a fun and funny short about a doctor who is called to address a prisoner's claim that he is God. Freeman plays the skeptical physician who scoffs at the prisoner, whimsically depicted by Hollander. The prisoner's amusing demonstration for his claim involves Belgium, which leaves Freeman perplexed and astonished. The ending is equally amusing and a sort of comeuppance for Freeman. Very entertaining and my favorite of the shorts.

Just Before Losing Everything (France)-Xavier Legrand Dir.- A woman and her children escape her abusive husband in a short harrowing and thrilling. Fearing for herself and her children's welfare, the woman's flight involves a desperate dash through a supermarket parking lot, which is breathtaking and tense. Terrific film and one that utilizes the short's time-constraints efficiently.

That Wasn't Me (Spain)-Estaban Crespo Dir.- Two Spanish doctors and an African guide on a humanitarian mission in an unidentified African country encounter armed rebels, who abduct them and hold them prisoner. One of the doctors, Paula, forms a bond with one of her abductors, wounding him and holding him prisoner with a gun before fleeing together to the sanctuary of a city. The story vacillates between past and future, where said doctor is listening to her now-reformed abductor as he addresses a room full of students. My least favorite of the shorts. A horrifying story becomes weepy, robbing the story of its dramatic power. The short also ends sentimentally, which is very disappointing, given the terrific performances.

Do I Have to Take Care of Everything (Finland)-Selma Vilhunen Dir.- 7 minutes of joyful hysteria. A couple awakes one morning to realize they are painfully late to a wedding. The mother tries to organize the family with disastrous and hilarious results. Arriving at what they think is THE wedding, they find themselves in a humiliating and funny predicament. I don't know what Vilhunen's future film projects may be, but if they are anything like her short, we'll be in for many treats. Blending physical comedy and the unexpected, her short film ends the program with something upbeat and exhilarating.

No comments:

Post a Comment

On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.