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MovieMail's Review
It's fair to say that Julian Upton was delighted with the newest volume of Cinema 16, which includes shorts from del Toro, Chomet, Cuarón, Maddin...
Thank God for Cinema 16. Their ongoing dedication to presenting the best, most offbeat and most provocative shorts from the early careers of many world-renowned directors has proved to be an essential access point to work that would otherwise be near-impossible to see. It’s a sad fact that short films pretty much vanished from mainstream cinema schedules thirty-odd years ago, and even more regrettable has been their long-time absence from television. The Cinema 16 series, then, provides us not just with a few stimulating hours of eye-opening entertainment, but also something of an essential public service.
This latest offering – following excellent anthologies of European, British and American shorts – casts its remit wide to encompass ‘world short films’. The result is a welcome opportunity to delve further into territory that still has many more gems to unearth, and to gain a new exposure to vital work from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Korea and even Senegal.
The stand-out European fare here includes Red Road director Andrea Arnold’s electrifying, Oscar-winning Wasp – a brutally stark view of underclass life and parental neglect, enriched by a surreal turn – and Sylvain Chomet’s The Old Lady and the Pigeons, a deliciously, hauntingly mischievous animated precursor to Belleville Rendez-vous that sees an emaciated gendarme exploit the culinary generosity of an old woman by dressing as a giant pigeon.
From Australia, decidedly rougher animation provides the perfect medium for Adam Elliot’s deadpan but life-affirming anecdote, Uncle, and from New Zealand there’s a chance to catch Taika Waitita’s Oscar-winning evocation of first love, Two Cars, One Night, as well as an early autobiographical piece by Jane Campion, A Girl’s Own Story, which must rank among the best work of her glittering career.
Add to this a couple of characteristically invigorating shorts by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, and a wonderfully left-field experiment in biography by Guy Maddin and Isabella Rossellini, and you have an essential collection.
16 recent, award-winning short films from some outstanding names in world cinema, such as Sylvain Chomet, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, Aleksandr Sokurov and Guy Maddin.
Features Andrea Arnolds' Oscar winner, Wasp, Old Lady and the Pigeons - Sylvain Chomet, Judgement - Park Chan-wook, Sikumi (On the Ice - 2008 Sundance winner) - Andrew Okpeaha Maclean, Dona Lupe - Guillermo Del Toro, Attack on the Bakery Naoto Yamakawa, 2 Cars, One Night - Taika Waititi, Sonata for Hitler - Alexander Sokurov , My Dad is 100 Years Old - Guy Maddin, Forklift Truck Driver Klaus - Stefan Pehn and Jorg Wagner , Uncle - Adam Elliot, Quartet for the End of Time Alfonso Cuaron , Madame Tutli-Putli - Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczarbowski, A Girl's Own Story - Jane Campion, Borom Sarret - Ousmane Sembene, and Simon Ellis's Soft.
