Six highlights from Shakespeare's Globe's The Complete Walk

In case you're not already aware, as well as being (probably) William Shakespeare's 452nd birthday, 23rd April 2016 marked the 400th anniversary of the death of the Bard. Amongst the many events planned to celebrate this milestone, Shakespeare's Globe commissioned 37 short films to be made, one for each of the plays commonly regarded as either definitively by Shakespeare or Shakespearean enough to be attributed to him (sorry The Two Noble Kinsmen, you didn't make the cut).

Over Shakespeare's birthday/deathday weekend, 37 screens were set up along the South Bank of the Thames, as well as across Liverpool, to screen these short films to the public free of charge. After an early start followed by a train and tube journey to Westminster, I managed to take in 32 of the films, missing five due to technical issues with the screens. Whilst I was a little disappointed not to have seen all 37, those that I did see were on the whole superb, providing insight into some of the varied productions of Shakespeare's work to which The Globe has played host as well as some fantastic film interpretations of extracts from the plays filmed in appropriate locations around the world.

Shakespeare's Globe haven't currently confirmed whether the short films will be made available either online or on Blu-ray or DVD, but with the amount of effort that has gone into them - and going by The Globe's steady stream of Globe On Screen home media releases - it's more than likely that it will happen at some point, most probably before the end of the 400th anniversary year. Until then, here are five highlights from what I was able to see.


Screen 5: Titus Andronicus
As well as being one of Shakespeare's bloodiest and most brutal works, Titus Andronicus is also one of his most openly criticised and - until recently- rarely performed plays. Julie Taymor's film Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins as the eponymous Roman general, helped introduce the play to a fresh audience at the turn of the 21st Century, sparking something of a resurgence of interest. Despite Nick Bagnall's short film boasting Twelfth Doctor/Malcolm Tucker himself Peter Capaldi doing a sterling job playing Titus in a newly filmed segment, it's William Houston's captivating performance in the title role in clips from the Globe's recent production (aesthetically influenced in part by Taymor's film) that is likely to stick in your memory.


Screen 6: Henry VI, Part 2
Again directed by Nick Bagnall, Henry VI, Part 2 edged out a few strong contenders to become my favourite of all the films I saw throughout The Complete Walk. Bagnall's short film focuses on the character of Jack Cade (Neil Maskell) and his blunt henchman Dick the Butcher (Dean Nolan), masterfully updating the historical rebellion Cade led against the crown in 1450 to the 21st Century through using footage of the 2011 London riots. It's a risk by Bagnall, one that on paper perhaps sounds like it shouldn't work; but it absolutely does, anchored throughout by two flawless performances from Maskell and Nolan.

Screen 12: Richard II
A history that has enjoyed recent attention thanks to Ben Whishaw taking on the titular king in the BBC's The Hollow Crown in 2012, and more recently a filmed RSC production starring David Tennant, Bill Buckhurst's short film casts in the title role yet another actor whose stock is on the rise: James Norton. Buckhurst presents a traditional take on the characters, lifted by an impressive turn by Norton and the spectacular setting of Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament.


Screen 15: Henry IV, Part 1
There are many examples of superb casting throughout The Complete Walk, but Toby Jones as Sir John Falstaff is arguably the most inspired of all. Presenting a compilation of the character's most memorable lines strung together as one anarchic and incredibly funny all-day pub session at London's historic George Inn, the way in which Dominic Dromgoole updates Falstaff and his fellow reprobates to the present day whilst maintaining a strong sense of the original characters is wonderful. Jones, of course, is reliably excellent, effortlessly balancing the comedic timing and dramatic depth required to bring to life one of Shakespeare's most beloved characters.

Screen 32: Coriolanus
Recently modernised on screen by Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Dromgoole's short film again brings Coriolanus into the modern day but in a different manner to Fiennes. Dominic West delivers Caius Martius' scathing speech responding to his banishment from Rome as he drives through the streets of the city, taking in both ancient architecture and modern elements as well as the citizens who have rejected him and towards whom his bile is directed. It's simple but remarkably effective, anchored by a commendably understated performance from West.


Screen 33: Henry VIII
Whilst the first half of Mark Rosenblatt's film showcases the grand production of Henry VIII at the Globe starring Dominic Rowan, the second half focuses on newly filmed scenes at Hampton Court Palace. The casting of British Ghanaian actor Danny Sapani in the title role in this section is perhaps one of the greatest departures from historical source seen throughout The Complete Walk. But Sapani undeniably owns the role throughout, delivering a performance so powerful and memorable as the English king that I would jump at the chance to see a feature film adaptation of the play with him in the lead.

By Ben Broadribb. Ben is a regular contributor to Film Intel, having previously written at Some Like It Hot Fuzz. He is normally seen in the wild wearing t-shirts containing obscure film references. He is a geek, often unashamedly so. He's also on Google+ and Twitter.

Kung Fury - Online Review

'Sandberg uses his slight resources to full effect, turning what could be limiting factors into authentic aesthetic choices and well-realised nods to '80s culture'.

Continuing the recent line of film and television lovingly lampooning everything and anything to do with the 1980s, Kung Fury pleasingly emerges as one of the more accomplished entries into this ever-growing cult subgenre. This is arguably more successful at extrapolating a full story from a trailer than bigger budget ventures such as Machete, whilst offering a higher concentration of humour and over-the-top ideas than last year's stylistically similar feature-length release WolfCop.

Writer, director and lead actor David Sandberg does well to stay true to his original idea - that idea being ludicrous comedy and well-executed parody-cum-tribute - whilst filtering in just enough basic storyline to ensure Kung Fury doesn't end up as half an hour of unfocused, unsatisfying silliness. The plot is for the most part shamelessly simple, a fact which may turn off some, but Sandberg clearly knows that his target audience won't have come to his film for complex narrative developments. What is offered here works far better than if Sandberg had tried to unnecessarily force a convoluted story onto his idea, something which other films of this ilk - including both the aforementioned Machete and WolfCop - have done to varying degrees in the past, usually to their detriment.

Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, Kung Fury arguably makes better use of its relatively small budget (just over $600,000 US) than many other more amply financed productions. Sandberg uses his slight resources to full effect, turning what could be limiting factors into authentic aesthetic choices and well-realised nods to '80s culture. The ageing VHS look of the film is omnipresent but never overdone, and the moments where the director overtly utilises this style for creative or humorous effect work brilliantly.

Sandberg includes pleasing references to a huge range of pop culture, from classic arcade games to retro kids' cartoons, from Miami Vice to Tron. The film rarely lets up over its thirty minutes, but thankfully manages to get away with it for pretty much the entire running time. The more surreal choices by the director keep the film feeling fresh, whilst also fitting in well with Kung Fury's largely throwback feel - almost like a crossover episode of Knight Rider and Twin Peaks.

Deep analysis of Sandberg's work here feels unnecessary, however, and not in keeping with what the writer and director was aiming for in making his film. The reason Kung Fury works so well is that it provides undeniable, unfettered fun. Whether this will transfer as well from short film to feature as it did from trailer to short film - something Sandberg is apparently intent on doing - remains unsure. In many ways, it may be better for Sandberg to leave Kung Fury as the successful half-hour of cinema it is, transferring his efforts onto a fresh project rather than risking overstretching his initial concept and spoiling the ridiculous retro enjoyment Kung Fury has to offer.

Kung Fury is available to watch free of charge on YouTube here.

By Ben Broadribb. Ben is a regular contributor to Film Intel, having previously written at Some Like It Hot Fuzz. He is normally seen in the wild wearing t-shirts containing obscure film references. He is a geek, often unashamedly so. He's also on Google+ and Twitter.

Trailer Of The Week - Kung Fury

With the trailer having recently received a fair amount of attention from several big media outlets, Kung Fury seems certain to move from Kickstarter project to short film reality, with director Laser Unicorns (AKA David Sandberg of Sweden) all the more hopeful that the thirty minute feature he plans to create will lead to a full length film. Seemingly cut from the same cloth as the “fake” trailers seen in Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, Sandberg’s film has its basis in eighties action cop films whilst at the same time featuring dinosaurs, vikings and Adolf Hitler, all via the most retro time travel device since Doc Brown decided to customise his DeLorean. It could be so crazy it’s brilliant, but it could also suffer from the same issues as other tongue-in-cheek cheese fests of recent years (think Snakes On A Plane). Either way, the trailer is hugely entertaining for now, as well as being a triumph of low-budget green screen filmmaking.

By Ben Broadribb. Ben is a regular contributor to Film Intel, having previously written at Some Like It Hot Fuzz. He is normally seen in the wild wearing t-shirts containing obscure film references. He is a geek, often unashamedly so. He's also on Google+ and Twitter.

BIFF 2013 - Short Takes on the Shorts (ranked)

The Livelong Day from David Fenster on Vimeo.

The Livelong Day

Lovely mini-doc about obsessive operators of gigantic model railways, who appeared to me to be as kooky as obsessive operators/watchers/readers/followers of pretty much anything. A great deal of gentle charm here.  The full film is included above. 5/5.

Doctor Bucketman

Compelling, entertaining mini-doc about man who has turned playing buckets and pans in subways into musical brilliance. Jovial, light, with fantastic music. 5/5.

Foxes

Cracking if predictable short Horror. Manages to take in the other-worldliness of animals, the Irish recession and some charged sexuality. Screened with The Last Dogs Of Winter, making it part of the best two hours at the festival. 4/5.

THE PERFECTIONISTS (trailer) from Mankuso on Vimeo.

The Perfectionists

Infectiously light-hearted look at a band of precocious, pretentious actors and the odd, occasionally macabre, processes they go through. Would watch a full length with the same characters. 4/5.

Le Souffle Court

Good child trafficking drama concerned with the thin lines between the bad people and the very bad people and wide margins separating them from true innocents. Pretty captivating slow burner. 4/5.

Strobogramm

Cleverly edited, this is essentially about a woman turning a light switch on and off but manages to engage more than that might initially suggest. Enjoyably clever. 4/5.

Notes On Film 04: Intermezzo

Chaplain pratfalls to a background of heavy metal and bright editing. Oddly entertaining and a real wake-up call for first screening on a Saturday morning. 4/5.

Return

Shay returns to try to live with his family after a psychotic episode. Tense and quite touching. 3/5.

Rain

It seemed that almost all of the BIFF shorts this year had great amounts of ambiguity; a predilection to be so vague they didn't bother to tell a story. Rain is one such film, so ambiguous you really can't connect with anything, eventually petering out whilst saying little. 2/5.

A Marriage

Gruff Scandanavian gets beautiful Russian wife and hilariously miss-matched comedy ensues? Not quite. It's not only the protagonist who seems unable to laugh at the situation. 2/5.

Dangerous Light

Lightsaber battles from various Star Wars film with the background taken down to dull levels and the weapons accentuated. Playful but doesn't offer very much and the technique isn't perfect. 2/5.

A Day Or Two

Another grim ambiguous one, this time possibly about relationship breakdowns and how they effect children. Some of it takes place in flashback, some of it on a farm, most of it is deeply disinteresting. 2/5.

Bellum

Has something to say about the war on terror but not entirely sure what. Passingly interesting but no more than that. Too long for the amount of plot it has. 2/5.

Tic Tac

Silent black and white footage of youths jumping around walls, some of which happens off screen. Did nothing for me, mainly because it does nothing, full stop. 1/5.

Film/Spricht/Viele/Sprachen

Annoying advertisement for a film festival with subliminal messages doing their best to give you a crushing headache. Saw it three times? Four times? It didn't get any better. 1/5.

An der schoenen Blauen Donau

A man plays a piano with his crotch. Unlikely to win Oscars. 1/5.

Habitat

An industrial soundtrack and merged together shots of buildings. If it looked pretty, or even interesting, it could be an art exhibit, but it doesn't, so I'm really not sure what you're left with. 1/5.

Four Hours Barefoot

Man commits a murder then wanders around for... well, you get it. Very dull. Won the short film award. 1/5.

A to A

A 3D film about roundabouts. Indescribably boring. 1/5.

Out Of Frame

Shots of empty Greek billboards during a ban on advertising purport to say something about the nation's economy. Perhaps would have been better as a photographic gallery exhibit. Unexciting as any length of film. 1/5.

Mothlight

Stan Brakhage makes films by physically altering the negative. This is one of them but screening it separately to the rest of his short collection perhaps means it loses something in translation. I'm unwilling to write him off but also didn't see enough of his vast array of works to make a judgement. I also missed Dog Star Man, which is apparently his masterpiece. N/A.

Rage Net

Another Brakhage short. N/A.

Kubrick's Early Shorts - Day Of The Fight, The Flying Padre, The Seafarers

The collected coverage of the new blu-ray release of Stanley Kubrick's Fear And Desire has found it nearly impossible to not refer to the fact that the director himself tried to remove the film from circulation. Quoting the film's accompanying booklet, which also draws attention to Kubrick's distrust of his first feature, The Telegraph's piece is one of many which pays at least passing attention to ideas of authorship and ownership. Kubrick, at one point, did not want this film seen, did not want it to form part of his canon. Do we have a right to label it as such, to watch it even?

Whilst Fear And Desire is more than a passable film and Kubrick's embarrassment is, at least in part, misguided, one has to wonder what he would make of the fact that the blu-ray package comes complete with three of his early shorts, all at least equally dubious in their cinematic quality.

Day Of The Fight, Kubrick's first attempt at cinema, runs to sixteen minutes and is the most impressive of the bunch. Filmed on the back of an article Kubrick had produced for Look magazine, who employed him as a photographer at the time, the director follows boxer Walter Cartier through a painstaking day of waiting before he fights to move up a rung on the middle-weight ladder.

There is something innately Kubrickian of Day Of The Fight, with a focus, emphasised by the narration from Douglas Edwards, placed on to human condition. The film considers the idea that Cartier, unlike most, knows where he is heading and that any nerves are all present only in the peaceful daytime, absent at the point of conflict, where arguably he should feel their presence the most. It is a film only let down by the archaic structure and uninspired direction of the fight itself, which seems to include a staged shot, undermining its documentary credentials.

Financed on the back of Day Of The Fight's success, Flying Padre also has some of the ideas Kubrick would follow in his later career - the exploration of 'space', the human condition - but at just nine minutes long he hardly gives himself time to consider them. Again, two scenes in particular feel very staged and it is difficult to know whether to take this minor film as fiction or fact.

The Seafarers, which weighs in at a fairly meaty twenty-nine minutes and marks Kubrick's first brush with colour, seems to have the most promise but is actually by far the worst of the bunch. A thinly disguised half hour commercial for a union of ship workers, the film is a monotonous sales pitch, with clunky visuals, no auteur flair and next to no drama - documentary or otherwise - with which to hook you in. It is, give or take, about as boring as Kubrick ever gets, unless you have a deeply held desire to travel the history of the SIU, who will forever have a not insignificant cinematic claim to fame.


All three of Kubrick's early shorts are available on Masters Of Cinema's new release of Fear And Desire, Kubrick's first feature film.

Film Intel's Final Word - Spider-Reviews, Alien Lamp, The Gate Short

The Amazing Spider-Man Reviews Hit.

Story: Telegraph

It seems to be at least OK but the claim that it's 'the superhero film for the Twilight generation' has me somewhat worried.



Alien Lamp Wins 'Design of the Week'.

Story: Evil Robot Designs

Presumably coming soon; the Predator hat stand and the Rambo footstool.



The Gate Short Film Tapped for Long-Form Adaptation

Some good ideas. Works better as a public-awareness or 'cause'-style promo piece though, than as a narrative. If it holds on to its morals then perhaps it could be something.

BIFF - Short Takes on the Shorts

The Bradford International Film Festival has a wonderful policy more festivals should adopt; every film, major or minor, is prefixed by a short film. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes animated, sometimes live action. The selection I saw included a surreal outing for Buffy's Anthony Head and an offering from Peter Serafinowicz. Here's a short take on the shorts.

Modern No. 2 - A screensaver. A variety of patterns-on-paper jump around in time to some admittedly funky music. Can see why it was paired with the similarly non-narrative Samsara but didn't really see what it offered beyond the soundtrack.

Ella - Benefits from the presence of Anthony Head but has far too undefined a plot to really say its successful. There's ambiguity and there's ambiguity and this has both of those things. Excellent camerawork though.

What's Opera Doc? - Showing as part of a centenary tribute to legendary animation director Chuck Jones, this Bugs Bunny cartoon shows him at his experimental best. A layered take on classic dramatic form, this is (obviously) zany but also (less obviously), a chuckling send-up of opera. Hailed by many as one of the greatest cartoons of all time, probably correctly.

Intermission - Co-Directed by and featuring Peter Serafinowicz, Intermission is a parody of the old cinema intermissions, which doesn't feel at all like a short film and instead feels like several rejected sketch jokes stitched together into a loose structure. They're not that funny but at just three minutes, the joke didn't get time to feel thin.

The Dot And The Line - Incredibly clever Jones animation in which, after a very short space of time, you will find yourself becoming attached to a single pencil line. Slyly funny demonstration in the essence of creating character.

Fast And Furry-ous - Road Runner vs Wile E. Coyote in the classic example of the two's war of attrition. Road Runner has never been my favourite character and this shows why; it gets rather repetitive, rather quickly. Another genius programming choice, infront of the similarly hectic The Raid.

One Smart Indian - Another short lacking in distinct definition, Craig Butta's film seems to follow a writer with writer's block, not that that's made anywhere near clear till the end, which almost makes everything previously a tad unnecessary. Didn't engage me through script, action, plot or character at any point.

So Much For So Little - Jones again, this time producing a promotional video for the US Department of Health. As such, there's not much here to recommend. Did it show in front of Faust to indicate this was Jones' sell-out moment? For Jones completists only.


The 18th Bradford International Film Festival runs from 19th - 29th April at The National Media Museum and several satellite venues in and around Bradford. It includes a European Features competition, the Shine Short Film Award and several major UK premieres and retrospectives.

Trailer Of The Week - Week #10 - The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore

There's precious few inspiring trailers around at the moment and so, rather than go digging into the archives, we've gone for an inspiring short film for Trailer Of The Week instead. The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the ceremony last week and, despite the animation being a little rough, it's easy to see why. The music is joyous and the simple story - surrounding a love of reading, a bit of magic, Buster Keaton and The Wizard Of Oz - oozes the attention that has clearly been heaped on it. One to show the kids; like the best Pixar, it's intelligent, with understanding of cinematic legacy to spare.



Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Short Film Watch - Tidy Monster And The New Blomkamp Short

It's been a while since we last did this (which is funny because it always seems a while since we last did this post: someone needs to get us a calendar) but this week saw us watching two short films which deserved the resurrection of Short Film Watch.

First up was an untitled short (or trailer) from Neill Blomkamp, director of the Oscar-nominated District 9, which found its way into the ipad edition of Wired magazine and thus onto the hallowed servers of YouTube. The film doesn't tell us much and ends abruptly but it shows what you can do with a phone camera and a couple of actors who can read dialogue without sounding like poor ventriloquists. Its minimal one-minute runtime is laced with tension and, like every good trailer, it leaves you intrigued and wanting more.





Next was Tidy Monster, a suggestion from a reader who had seen our post on Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty from last year's Animated Short Oscar race. Like Blomkamp's short, this again shows how you can do a lot with very little. A visual interpretation of poem-like dialogue, the film focuses on a increasingly distorted room for the entire five minutes and can be interpreted in multiple ways: perhaps most obviously as a metaphor for a fracturing domestic situation. With four-hundred thousand hits on YouTube, it's fair to say that its captured the imagination of more than a couple of people and, along with the first film, serves as a lesson to film makers on how to capture an audience and tell a simple story with little resource.

Short Film Watch: Oktopodi

All this talk over the weekend about Paul, the psychic octopus, made us think that maybe there's something about the intelligence level of your average cephalopod that we're under estimating. Take Oktopodi for example. The brain child of a group of student filmmakers, several of whom worked on recent US smash, Despicable Me, this short tale of eight-legged love sees two Octopi fighting against a chef for the right to live. Not only is the film rather hilarious and charming but it is also an Oscar nominee, losing out only to festival darling La maison en petits cubes at the 2009 awards. You see, they've kept it a secret for a while, but every so often, something of the true Octopus seeps out.

Partly Cloudy - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #6

Country: USA
Website: http://www.pixar.com/shorts/pc/index.html
Director: Peter Sohn
Writer: Not Credited

Summary: Partly Cloudy expands on the myth that Storks deliver babies, focusing on one particular stork who must collect a variety of vicious animals from his partnered cloud as opposed to his friends who spend their time with fluffy kittens and angelic babies.

As Pixar animations go, this is an extremely weak one. You would think choosing to go down the silent route would be a strong choice for the studio (especially considering the success of the near-silent Wall.E) but this feels rushed and under-developed.

The emotions of the two main characters are captured well and to great effect and there was some tugging of the heart strings going on that registered successfully but when compared to any other of the studio's offerings this doesn't hold water. The central joke about the fact that the stork in question has to carry the dangerous babies (hedgehogs, crocodiles, sharks) to their parents wasn't developed for long enough to make it engaging or funny enough or to give the conclusion its much-needed 'aww' moment. A good idea, sadly wasted.

Chances: At the time it seemed a surprise that Partly Cloudy didn't make it to the nomination stage (based on the fact that it is from Disney Pixar) but having now seen it that decision is fully vindicated. It isn't even as good as the other short that features on the Blu-ray copy of Up.

Distribution: It appears to be available illegally online but for those (rightly) preferring more established (and legal) methods of distribution, you can see this on the Blu-ray and DVD offerings of Up. On the same disc you can also see Dug's Special Mission, an extension to the feature film which shows what Pixar is capable of when they put their minds to it.

LAMB Devours The Oscars - Best Animated Short Film

(Originally written for LAMB on the 9th February 2010 and reproduced from its original publication here)

The Oscar for Best Animated Short Film can be an odd one. You would perhaps be forgiven for thinking that award winners would reflect changing times, trends and technologies in the animation genre; a natural evolutionary step-change from the hand-drawn charms of Flowers And Trees, the first winner in 1923, to a Pixar computer generated marvel in 2010. However, even though it is often marginalised, announced with little fanfare alongside the technical awards, The Academy likes to keep its audience guessing in this category just as much as in any other.

Last year the award went to La Maison En Petit Cubes, a rather rough-round-the-edges Japanese hand-drawn short which beat the silken CGI lines of British entry This Way Up and the charming mad-cap stupidity of Oktapodi, also a CGI entry. Two years before that, The Danish Poet, another very sparse hand-drawn animation, dethroned the mighty Pixar's Lifted, capping a double slap in the face for the Disney-owned studio, as Happy Feet triumphed in the longer category over Cars.

Already, prior to the ceremony, this year has been no different. A couple of months back a long list of ten films were announced for the consideration of Academy voters. Now at shortlist stage, we've already lost five and who fell at the first hurdle? That's right, Pixar. Gone too is Australian animation The Cat Piano, a film which featured the voice over talents of Nick Cave, as well as Cordell Barker's entry, Runaway, a film which looked to have all the trappings of 'typical' academy success.

And so we're now down to the following five. Covering different styles, themes, countries and messages it's difficult to predict what The Academy will do. The smart money would be on three-time award winner Nick Park, an apparent Academy favourite whose Wallace And Gromit animations last won in 1995. But then again... the smart money every other year, would have got you nowhere.

French Roast - Fabrice Joubert

CGI but in a unique, almost grubby, incarnation, we follow one man's day in a coffee shop as he continues to order drinks, ashamed that he has forgotten his wallet and is unable to pay. Charming, morally aware, visually interesting and with a great side character in the OCD-affected beggar, this is my favourite of the bunch.

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty - Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell

Granny O'Grimm reads fairy tales to her granddaughter to send her to sleep. Shame though that in Granny's old-age and cynical hands, all is not as it seems. A great perversion of the Sleeping Beauty tale this has had brilliant campaigning and promotion from Brown Bag films and features a fantastic character to front the campaign.

The Lady and The Reaper (La Dama y la muerte) - Javier Recio Garcia

A beautiful, surreal, darkly-comic tale of the battle for an old lady's soul between death and the doctor trying to save her. Thankfully this has now finally become available to watch online and it doesn't disappoint. Not dissimilar to last year's This Way Up, this is highly entertaining.

Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin

With the full film still not publicly available this looks like an outstandingly clever idea but one which will need a strong narrative to tie all its smarts together.

A Matter of Loaf and Death - Nick Park

Clocking in at only just shy of half an hour, the latest entry in the Wallace and Gromit series is way ahead of the other entries on length but not necessarily on story. Borrowing heavily from previous adventures, this nonetheless displays the charm, wit and slapstick silliness which the series is famed for.

(many of the films have longer write-ups, along with links to their official websites and picture previews over at the Film Intel website)

The Lady and The Reaper - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #5

Country: Spain
Website: http://www.theladyandthereaper.com/
Director: Javier Recio Gracia
Writer: Javier Recio Gracia

Summary: An old lady waits to greet her inevitable fate and rejoin her husband on a cold windy night somewhere anonymous. As Death approaches, a 'heroic' doctor steps in to save the day.

The Lady and The Reaper reminded me a lot of last years short film, This Way Up (which regular readers will have grown tired of me talking about by now) in its blackly comic, slightly sideways look at death and what it can bring. Moving between day-glo fantasy and stark realism, director and writer Javier Recio Gracia creates several believable worlds where we can simultaneously find enjoyment, shock and rollicking laughter.

The key here is the characters. Gracia personifies Death in the way many have before him (notably Terry Pratchett) and plays on the fact that he could act, feel and live like a real person for the laughs that are readily available. Similarly, and with echoes of fellow nominee Granny O'Grimm, he's not afraid to view the elderly as people rather than a massed group of anonymous, shuffling, nobodies.

The narrative has real weight behind it and the little ticks of the individuals contained within help drive it forwards. However, just like TWU, the director isn't afraid to let his story go off on its own, creating visual delights for the viewer that are surprising given the rather somber early moments. Entertaining, well-rounded and perfectly structured, this is an exemplary short film and a worthy nomination.

Chances: It's got a nomination so it's as much in with a shout as the rest of the final five. All of them will have to beat the Wallace and Gromit behemoth to stand a chance but there's no reason why The Lady and The Reaper can't be that one.

Distribution: The Lady and The Reaper has literally just become available on the official website which is linked to above.

The Oscar for Animated Short Film 2010 - The Nominations

So with just a few hours to go before the Oscar nominations it's time to attempt to wrap up this year's race for the Animated Short Film Oscar so lets start with a moan: out of the ten films that were long listed I've only seen four of them. It's not like I haven't been trying (scanning their websites on a daily basis) or like I could have watched some of the ones I haven't but just didn't have time (the only one available that I haven't watched is the Pixar one - available illegally via YouTube), no the companies involved have simply limited their distribution of their respective short films. This perplexes me.

On the one hand I'm sure there are good reasons for this... I'm just struggling to think of them right now. The main aim behind short films seems to almost always be to gain a bit of publicity for the studios or artists producing them, therefore, it logically follows, if you make your film available to the widest possible audience, you gain more exposure. Perhaps not. Perhaps there are some larger forces at work that can explain exactly what is gained by not distributing short films more readily but for now the fact remains that only a small percentage of the Oscar long list was viewable ahead of the nomination announcement without going to an organised screening for Academy members.

Having said that, there is plenty of information available about all of the films involved. The Lady And The Reaper for example has an excellent website and production blog, complete with a short trailer (no full-length though, grumble, grumble...). Logorama has had some good press in various places and a trailer to that is also available. Runaway, The Kinematograph & Variete also have trailers, Partly Cloudy has a small featured section on the Pixar website. The end result is that the six films that I haven't seen all have a presence without actually being present themselves.

Predictions

This article will be updated later today to see how good or how badly I did. It's obviously not as easy as it should be to do predictions (see above) for this award but lets have a stab at it anyway. Here are thistimeitwillbedifferent's five tips for nominations in Animated Short Film at the Oscars 2010:

The Cat Piano
French Roast
Runaway
Logorama
Partly Cloudy

The Reasoning

In my mind, The Cat Piano and French Roast are shoe-ins. They both have pedigree, individual visual styles, inventive stories and high production values. If one or other of them misses out it will be a travesty. Partly Cloudy too, by virtue of it being by Pixar, has an excellent chance and I can't see the Academy ignoring such an industry heavyweight. The other two then are the most risky choices. Cordell Barker's Runaway looks to have some moral weight to it and is drawn in the kind of individual hand-drawn style the Academy has shown propensity to love before, you could level the same thing at Variete, but from what I've seen of the two, Runaway certainly seems to have the upper hand. Logorama might turn out to be taking too much of a stab in the direction of the mainstream for Oscar's liking but it also seems to be doing it in a pseudo-ironic way and its good press coverage give it a great chance.

Other Chances

I've not seen much of The Kinematograph but what I have seen also looks intriguing and well-produced, consider it an outside bet. The Wallace & Gromit film, in my opinion, shouldn't be anywhere near this award but Nick Park has previous form so don't be surprised if he pips one of the more deserving efforts. Granny O' Grimm's Brown Bag films have fought the good fight with a great publicity campaign (even enlisting Granny to help) but with the other great CGI efforts this year it might prove difficult for it to sneak in, likewise The Lady And The Reaper. I've seen very little of Variete but to me, the bits that I did see looked slightly shaky and not quite as well polished as the other entries.

The Result

(Updated 2.07pm GMT)

OK, so Oscar revealed the full list of nominees just before 2.00pm GMT, you can find them all, including the major categories, here. The five films nominated for Best Animated Short Film 2010 were:

French Roast
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
The Lady And The Reaper
Logorama
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death

Which means that the following films have missed out:

The Cat Piano
The Kinematograph
Variete
Runaway
Partly Cloudy

Analysis

So as ever, and linking back to my original post on this, politics played a big part. Oscar loves the claymation of Nick Park and despite the fact that his entry is a 30-minute long television episode (a completely different art form to a 10-minute long short film in my opinion) he's walked away with a nomination. For all the reasons outlined in my original post on the latest Wallace and Gromit, I think that borders on travesty, Oscar once again going for what it knows rather than rewarding the originality of, say, The Cat Piano.

Out of the five I only got two right which, lets be honest, any idiot with a pin and a dartboard could have done so shows what I know hey? Granny O' Grimm's inclusion and the Pixar film's exclusion must be counted as a bit of a shock but I suppose that's what a good campaign can do for you and Up has walked away with a Best Picture nom, so I'm sure they won't be too upset.

Open season for who wins it then? Could be any one of the five? Who am I kidding... it's Nick Parks for the taking.

A Matter Of Loaf And Death - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #4

Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/films/loafanddeath/
Director: Nick Park
Writer: Nick Park and Bob Baker

Summary: Wallace and Gromit are back in their latest short adventure. Having set up a new bakery business using Wallace's latest invention, our duo learn that now might not be the best time to be in the business: bakers are being murdered two to the baker's dozen (ahem) and they may be the next targets, suddenly it's all A Matter Of Loaf And Death.

If you're in the UK then odds are you know who Wallace and Gromit are. Created by Nick Park's Aardman Animations during the late 80's, the duo have fronted Aardman's efforts for many years, often turning up in Christmas specials and even featuring in their very own 2005 cinema release, The Curse of The Were-Rabbit.

Endearing though the duo still are this latest 29-minute long version feels very familiar and in fact follows an indentical plot to previous adventures The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave; Gromit knows who the villain is but struggles to tell bungling Wallace as he goes about his daily business. The jokes are still there to raise at least a smile but at times border on the cringe-worthy, shoe-horning in everything and anything to do with baking ('back to the grind Gromit!'), although the physical comedy is still present and correct and produced expertly in the familiar clay-mation.

Chances: Park has won the award no less than three times with A Close Shave taking the award last in 1995. I'm unsure what the rules are in terms of length but for me, the W&G episodes aren't really true short films, each one coming it at at least 29 minutes. However, if the Academy says 'yay' then like The Dude, I abide. On the one hand, this might prove too familiar to previous Aardmen entries to get a look in but on the other, Park is obviously a favourite and the timespan between victories could see a return to at least the nomination list.

Distribution: A Matter Of Loaf And Death premiered on BBC television in the UK on Christmas day and was repeated on the 10th January 2010. If you are in the UK you can watch it online here on the BBC iplayer until the 18th January although you may struggle if you are an International viewer. There is a DVD release planned for the New Year.

Short Film Watch - Fede Alvarez

Making fairly big news over here at the moment is a man going by the name of Fede Alvarez who uploaded a video to YouTube on a Thursday and got offered a $30 million dollar Hollywood film to direct the following Monday. The film is called Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack!) and depicts the Uruguayan capital Montevido being attacked and destroyed by giant robots, rather a la the final battle in Transformers.

As pointed out by Matt Goldberg over at Collider.com, the real story here isn't the film, it's the fact that Hollywood is so willing to throw money at a hitherto unknown film maker based on a single short on a website anyone can upload to.

The reasons for this are perhaps initially a bit unclear: sure the film's effects are extremely impressive considering the meagre $300 budget reportedly used but it doesn't really have a story, a structure or much human interest. It is really a pretty impressive tech demo of what Alvarez can accomplish on whatever software he uses at home.

Over and above this though I wouldn't be surprised if this is the start of a very clever viral campaign from Sam Raimi's studio, designed to create the next District 9. With the BBC story and others around the globe and 1.7 million YouTube viewers, Alvarez is guarenteed to draw in the punters interested in seeing what the small independent film maker can do with a multi-million dollar budget. In the end, just like everything else in Hollywood, the numbers add up. $30 million by today's standards really isn't that much for a science fiction extravaganza and even without the attention that will be generated at its release, Raimi and co have probably already scored enough publicity to ensure they make it back.

I'd rather see one of the more skilled film makers I've looked at recently get thrown this amount of cash but whichever way you cut it this can't be a bad thing. Hollywood has basically invested some of its easy-earned in new fresh talent and if Alvarez' debut turns out to be the next District 9 then who's to say they won't do it again?

Look Further...

The shortlist for the animated shorts set to be Oscar nominated in 2010 is analysed here and elsewhere on the blog you can find deeper looks at some of the films on the list (more to come as they're released).

If you're not one of the mammouth amount of viewers to watch Alvarez' short yet then you can appraise it below.

French Roast - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #3

Country: France
Website: http://www.frenchroast.fr/index_en.html
Director: Fabrice Joubert
Writer: Fabrice Joubert

Summary: A man sits in a French Cafe sipping coffee whilst trying to simultaneously avoid the attentions of a beggar and figure out how he is going to afford to pay for his drink.

French Roast has one of those fantastic visual styles that proves very hard to put your finger on. It is 3D rendering but it is of a sort that almost makes the characters look like a certain style of puppetry (think Postman Pat if you're in the UK). The end result isn't displeasing and the characters still hold all of the emotion of the story in their faces whilst also lending the visuals a kind of grubby nostalgia that is very welcome alongside the occasionally cold 3D models of today.

As a story French Roast really is everything you could ask for in a short. The narrative moves along at a sensible but fast pace, introducing a manageable number of characters, all of whom have their own individual ticks and symptoms which really make them stand out (witness the brilliant individualism of the OCD-like Beggar). The morality behind the tale that's told has been told before but when it's this well done it really doesn't matter.

Above all that, the thing that singles French Roast out as a great short film is its attention to detail. None involved characters move along the street in the background, the opening sequence which introduces us to the cafe where the entire film is set zooms in and out through a mirror, little props such as a broken light and a mop bucket are used to great hilarity to further the story. It really is a fantastic little film which makes you feel something towards its characters and still gives you a few chuckles a long the way. Top marks.

Chances: Must be relatively strong. The story has got everything The Academy normally looks for. Voice-acting is wisely kept to a minimum and there are enough opportunities for a decent outtake to show on Oscar night. Surely in with a chance and at least a nomination.


Distribution: The film is available on YouTube (through another website) but it doesn't look like this is a version hosted or distributed by the filmmakers. Instead head over to the version hosted on their own website and watch it in cracking resolution through Quick Time.

NB: This version did jump a little when I first watched it, despite buffering fully and quickly. If that happens just try coming back to it at a different time: worked for me!

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #2

Country: Ireland
Website: http://www.grannyogrimm.com
Director: Nick Phelan
Writer: Kathleen O'Rourke

Summary: 'You've heard of the Grimm fairy tales? Well Granny's are grimmer' reads Granny's own twitter page. Written and performed by Kathleen O'Rourke, Granny O'Grimm is a miserable old hag who seems to take great delight in manipulating fairy tales to show how put upon the elderly have become. In this short, Granny performs her own take on Sleeping Beauty to her watching (terrified) granddaughter.

In terms of style, Granny O'Grimm flips between two which is always an interesting choice in animation and works well here. When we are in Granny's house the characters are well-rendered 3D images of the type Pixar have got us all used to. However, when Granny gets really in to the telling of her tale, we go 'inside the book' to a sort of pseudo-rendered 2D world. Both styles work and are realised extremely well here: Granny's world is all murky greens and patterned wallpaper, the world of the book the bright floral colours you would expect. Neither is better than the other but stylistically and thematically they operate perfectly, Granny's noxious colouring occasionally imposing itself on the land of fairies.

Kathleen O'Rourke's reading of her own script is fantastic and her disenchanted mumblings around the coherent storyline are hilarious detours. Somewhere in the tale there is a modern fable on the treatment of the old but it is fairly faint and as such it is hard to tell whether this is a by-product of Granny's cynicism or a deliberate choice on behalf of the filmmakers. Sometimes I felt opportunities were missed to play Granny's ramblings for laughs and although Granny relies on her cane to move, the scenes in her house are perhaps a little bereft of animated movement or response. O'Rourke's voice over that continues across the closing credits is brilliant and hilarious, hinting at what perhaps could have been included in the main film.

Chances: I liked Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty a lot and the character of Granny is a particularly strong one to help push Brown Bag Film's campaign forwards. Last year I thought This Way Up deserved the award but it possibly suffered because of its lack of a wider message. Granny's own message might be similarly too faint for The Academy to latch on to but no doubt she'll be pushing her own agenda to the (bitter?) end.

Distribution: If you don't visit the website that has been created for Granny then you really are missing out and the full film is available there. However, it has also been published on YouTube and is reproduced below.

The Cat Piano - Oscar Animated Shorts 2010 #1

Country: Australia
Website: http://catpianofilm.com/
Director: Eddie White and Ari Gibson
Writer: Eddie White

Summary: The Cat Piano is the first in a series of looks at the ten films that are currently shorlisted for the Oscar for Best Short (Animated), a list that was released at the end of November and will be whittled down to five nominees come February. For those that missed the pre-amble to this you would perhaps find it best to take a quick scan over this article from last week.

Co-Directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson, The Cat Piano is basically a poem written by White and read by musician Nick Cave, brought further to life with animation and music. The narrative of the poem centres around a noir-like city of singing cats where our protagonist (who is, in true noir style, a chain smoking writer) begins to witness the dissappearance of said cats culminating in the vanishing of one particular beau he had his eye on, driving him to action.

In terms of style, The Cat Piano is all hand-drawn and moody noirish colours, blending together different, deep, shades of blue with occasional flashes of light in the darkness from yellows or whites. I suspect I'll probably say this about all of the nominees but in it's own way, it really is beautiful and the first few scenes where Cave's lyrical juggling sets us up in the cat's musical but sparse world are a joy.

Towards its middle (just because these are short films doesn't mean they don't have structure!) it feels like The Cat Piano might lose its way a bit and perhaps there is a hint there that White had to extend his poem just a tad to make it long enough to class as a short film. Also, for me, Cave's voice isn't compelling enough to hold this kind of weighty soliloquay (he's no Richard Burton) and there were times when the emotion of what was happening just wasn't quite conveyed in his voice.

Chances: The presence of Cave will do this no harm as he has shown himself to be award worthy before with the score and script for The Proposition picking up a few nods in his native Australia. I do seem to remember some technicality barring him from being nominated last year for The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford score although, I might of got that confused; either way, he was definitely mentioned at some point. The fact that it is a coherent and highly styalised story and is the first to be available for free online mean it might also have the weight of the public behind it.

Distribution: Available (legally) on YouTube and therefore, embeded here...

Why the only bit of The Oscars you need to watch... is the bit at the end

We're continuing to edge towards awards season and plenty of blogs are starting to iron out their 'Oscar [insert year here] Predictions' templates. There's nothing wrong with that and over the last few days I've found myself here looking at current and updated predictions as well as scanning the side-bars and link throughs of blogs I read on a regular basis (notably 202chicago's here), to get some idea on who thinks whats going to win.

As I say, there's nothing wrong with that and I enjoy reading about speculation and prediction as much as the next man. Having said that, when The Oscars role around I can't help but feel a little under-whelmed and, normally, the main reason for that is the politics behind it all. There is a certain 'type' of film that gets nominated for Oscars (I'm looking at you Precious) and not only that but once a film matches the right 'type' it also has to be released at the right time during the year to seemingly stand a chance (I'm still looking at you Precious). Perhaps there's nothing wrong with that either but it just feels a bit disingenuous to me to proclaim a film Best Picture when I suspect some of the members that vote on these matters may have forgotten all about films that came out towards the start of the year.

Now, I'll admit at this point that I haven't got any hard facts to back this up with, it's just the way I feel towards The Oscars and the awards season as a whole. I will, however, offer a case in point from this year: Moon. Moon doesn't fit in to either the 'type' of film normally noted nor the release period The Academy focuses on yet has garnered largely positive reviews around the world. Ask yourself this: if Moon had been released at the end of November/beginning of December, would we be talking about it as a serious contender now in a host of award categories? I think we probably would but hey, I'm a cynical bastard.

Having said that, I haven't seen everything that's being tipped to get a nomination and maybe they make Moon look like garbage. But I doubt it. And I suspect the reasons those films are getting tipped are more closely aligned with their release dates (and the people tipping them understanding how this process works) than their quality. Not that that should take anything away from the eventual winners and nominees. Just for the record, taking last years choices as an example, I loved all of the Best Picture choices (excluding The Reader), all of the Best Actor choices and most of the other choices in the leading categories. The eventual winners all deserved it in their own individual ways and I suspect I will also like this year's nominees and respect the eventual winners for their achievement(s).

I'd love to end this by saying this year will be no different; I'll feign interest in the ceremony, be annoyed when Moon is snubbed, enjoy reading other people's articles and largely keep this blog award-free. However... I can't. Because, I've found a part of the whole awards process that I'm not only interested in, but that is woefully under-covered and under-supported. It's something that I've recently become rather interested in and have been convinced (just like it's literary counterpart) of its relevancy and status as an art form. I am of course talking about The Oscar for The Best Short Film (Animated).

I could write at length about why I've been suddenly taken by this form of film but then this would quickly turn into more of a ramble than it already is so I'll let the articles that are to follow do their own talking. Below are the ten films that have recently been revealed as the 'semi-finalists' for the 2010 Oscar nominations, along with their websites (including the absolutely fantastic animated website for Granny O'Grimm - deserves an award of its own!). These will be whittled down to a final five in February. Between now and then I'll be posting a small article on each one of them with, where possible, a review and once we get nearer to the nominees being announced having hopefully seen them all (don't get me started on that, why film makers don't make shorts available more readily, I'll never know) I'll put my predictions up.

Until then if anyone also feels a similar need to look through the films then please get in touch and I'll link through to anything you post about them or this topic in general.


The 10 semi-finalists and their websites:


The Cat Piano, Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
http://catpianofilm.com/

French Roast, Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
http://www.frenchroast.fr/index_en.html

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
http://www.grannyogrimm.com/#/home

The Kinematograph, Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
http://www.thekinematograph.com/en/

The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
http://www.theladyandthereaper.com/

Logorama, Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
http://www.logorama-themovie.com/

A Matter of Loaf and Death, Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
http://wallaceandgromit.com/films/loafanddeath/about.html

Partly Cloudy, Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
http://www.pixar.com/shorts/pc/index.html

Runaway, Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
http://films.nfb.ca/runaway/

Variete, Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)
http://www.illuster.nl/Variete/157/default.ecms