Award Winning Short Film!

How could 1 little film, under 10 minutes, win so many awards?

44 Awards, more than 80 selections, including:
Nominated to the Spanish Academy Award 2013 (Goya)
Nominated to the Melies D'or 2013
Tribeca Film Festival, official selection
Clermont Ferrand 2013, official selection
Gijon International Film Festival, Young Jury Award
Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Plaque
New York City Short Film Festival, Best of the Fest
Seattle Short Film Festival, Best Cinematography, Best Script, Best Art Direction
Manhattan Short Film Festival, Bronze Medal
ZINEBI, Best Basque Short Film
...



Just watch & see... (click on Full Screen it's worth it)

vimeo.com/58150375

::: SPOILER ALERT !!! :::

The short film is only 10 minutes long, so please watch it BEFORE you read any further down this page, as we discuss the unusual plot twists, & you certainly don't want that enjoyable aspect ruined for you.

The production on this was amazing (great visuals, costumes, set design etc). Cinematography and lighting was spot on. The visual effects (both practical and post were very professional - especially the under water scenes.
The actual voice over was fun (I wonder why they did not use the French term for voice-over in the titles)?

But.

I dont know, something did not gel for me. I was expecting there to be some gimmick at the end; the 3 stories had to lead on to some hook, some twist, some reason for the macguffin of the three people trapped and/or racing against time.

Its just that the twist, hook, gimmick at the end seems to be too unrelated to the premise of the 3 preceding stories. The analogy or metaphor seems too forced, too contrived, and too distant from the idea of a kiss.

A man on another planet racing againt the clock to save his life. A man trapped and drowning and helpless. A man blown to pieces and racing against the clock to detonate a bomb.

OK, I get the idea that a first kiss can be daunting, and a young man might feel some level of dread, or helplessness before the deed, maybe even some inertia. But the whole trapped, fighting for life, racing against the clock seems out of whack with the idea of a first kiss. The analogy seems too extreme and too forced to me.

Ah, well, my first kiss was easy; the girl was the one making all the moves on me - so what do I know?!

Well Simon, I have to politely disagree on two matters. First, I think a young boy whose head is full of adventure comics, books & movies, might well have fantasies like the ones depicted. Also, his little heart is fairly pounding out of his chest with the pressure of the moment, so I feel there's so much riding on it, the life & death scenarios are apropos. It also appears that with all the awards around the world, a plethora of adjudicators tend to agree.

The other point... I'm a tiny bit perturbed about posting a spoiler here, in case anyone reads your post before watching the film. Understandably we can't discuss the film without spoiling the ending, so perhaps I'll go back & edit mine with a warning to take it under advisement to watch the film first before reading any further down this page.

Must agree on the rest, the cinematography, lighting, everything was almost flawless. Though I did think the boat looked a bit decrepit for something that had supposedly just sunk.

Oh yeah, I know I am going against the grain given that it has got so many awards. I think its a nice tight little story and very well made.

I was expecting a 'reveal' at the end, its just that the stories seemed disproportionate to the end.

Yeah, I get what you're saying about a kid filled with ideas from TV and comics, but then maybe it would have made more sense to have a Flash Gordon style space section for example; the 3 stories at the beginning would have been a bit above the kids age restriction I reckon. It was all very serious. The 2 tones didn't match. The mood was very sombre. Until the end, which wasn't.

I dont know; the seriousness of the 3 stories (their complete lack of humor other than the grown adults narration) just doesn't seem to gel with a kids point of view. I can think of a few analogies of a first experience: but having my legs blown off in the mud of WW1, screaming my girls name in the knowledge that I'll never see her again while I crawl through the mud over my fallen dead comrades to blow the detonator and kill myself - well that just wouldn't be an obvious analogy.

But thats just me, and I freely admit I'll be in the minority on this one.

Well, I agree Simon, the impending deaths were quite horrific in relation to the contrasted romantic hopefulness, perhaps tipping the scales by adding excessive weight to the gravitas of the situation.

Two thoughts spring to mind; perhaps French children are steered more towards classic books & less comics, thus we have the bloody legless battle of Dieppe rather than Flash Gordon swashbuckling amongst the stars.

Or perhaps this story was penned by older French people wanting to add dramatic import to a faded memory over-embellished thru the sands of time.

Still, it's a great little film. Did you see the "If Escher Were An Editor" video I posted here?

Yeah, I saw that Bonobo video. Its very hypnotic, crazy amount of detail. I like how it transitions from a small cropped 4:3 to full 16:9 - its a seamless move.

I found myself pausing it at points just to see what was actually going on in the individual clips.

Very clever what they did.