Shadows on the Wall: SHORT FILM REVIEWS 2003

• There
• Model
• Lunch

THERE

dir-scr Pierre Yves Clouin • 02/US 3m ***

This single take seems utterly random, like most of Clouin's films, but it has a serious sting in its tale as it tracks up an evening street in Paris, where the pavement is full of cafe tables and boistrous people. Then at the end we stop, the sound fades, and we retrace our steps to where we might have seen something rather shocking. The film catches you off guard with its simple yet pointed way of expressing something very important. 8.Mar.03 llgff

MODEL

dir-scr Pierre Yves Clouin • 01/Fr 3m **

Strange short film that doesn't really make sense but somehow generates a feeling of furtive and dangerous lust, as it features just a few images, filmed surreptitiously, of guys fumbling sexually out of view of the general public. The camera catches them--either in pairs or on their own--only because it knows where to look. The images are all illicit, sneaky, through bars, around corners or extremely close so no one knows someone's filming. Half of the short is in split screen, it's completely silent, and features one title in the middle: "in jail now". So there. 8.Mar.03 llgff

LUNCH

dir-scr Pierre Yves Clouin • 02/Fr 7m *

This self-consciously arty short obviously has a point but I missed it. It opens with a black and white crawl down a filthy tunnel lined with rubbish, then it cuts to colour images of a bunch of muscly men standing in a group, dancing, watching something. The camera caresses their bare chests, they flash their bums at each other, it goes on and on. Then we see the rubbish again. Oh and along the way we catch a glimpse of a butterfly sitting on a toe ... or perhaps another appendage. What it's about--and what the title means--is anyone's guess. 8.Mar.03 llgff