Only two of this year's nominated Live Action shorts are available to stream right now. I'm going to review them anyway. Hopefully, the rest of the shorts will show up in the coming weeks. I think I'll start with my personal preference:
Nattrikken (Night Ride): This Norwegian short follows the diminutive Ebba (Sigrid Kandal Husjord), who steals an unoccupied tram on a cold night. All she wants is to get home right away. But she has to intervene when a pair of unruly passengers start harassing a trans woman, Ariel (Ola Hoemsnes Sandum).
All Ebba has to do to steal the tram is step right in and play with the controls. It's a slow tram ride home as she plays conductor. The main creep, Allan (Axel Barø Aasen), has no idea how amateurish she really is. It turns tense when Allan and his friend learn more about Ariel. While we understand Ebba wanting a ride home, we're on edge since she's now in the position to act. She tricks Allan into taking the wheel, while covertly giving Ariel the chance to escape. We fully appreciate her as a clever and brave heroine. It ends with a nice scene of Ebba and Ariel bonding. It's a real winner even if it ends up not being the winner. See it for yourself on The New Yorker's Youtube channel.
Le Pupille (The Pupil): This Italian short by Alice Rohrwacher was produced by, among others, Alfonso Cuaron. In it, Serafina (Melissa Falasconi) is one of many girls in a World War II Catholic school. It's Christmastime, and the Mother Superior (Alice's sister Alba) expects her charges to be good girls. Even them dancing to a love song is grounds for getting their mouths washed with soap. Serafina, in particular, is called wicked for even wanting to sing along. Suddenly, an insistent woman (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) bestows upon the class a Zuppa Inglese cake made with 70 eggs. Serafina finds an opportunity to put her "wickedness" to good use.
The other girls, who act as Greek Chorus, tell us it's based on a letter from author Elsa Morante (La Storia) to fellow author Goffredo Fofi (Portrait of the Writer). The story is a light but fun affair as the girls try to have fun despite their circumstances. Their boredom is palpable as they're made to act as angels for a late-night nativity scene. Their dancing to that song is amplified with undercranked dancing. Serafina, who accidentally messed with the radio and started the "mess," wonders if she's doing the right thing. Her defying the Mother Superior is an awesome act. Her sharing a slice with a stray dog and her classmates is pretty nice. Even some chimney sweeps enjoy the cake.
Its warm look was realized by cinematographer Helene Louvart. The nativity scene, despite being boring for the girls, is quite fanciful. The cake's reveal is its most majestic moment. It's enough to make one want one right away. The School's repressiveness is quickly conveyed with its great production design. Its whimsical score by the band Cleaning Women adds to its light tone. All in all, I'm reminded of Cuaron's version of A Little Princess, despite them not sharing major staff members. Perhaps you can make that connection if you stream it on Disney + now. It's just 37 minutes long.
Anyway, should enough of the currently unavailable shorts become available, I'll look at them in another post. I think I'll call that post Mixed Nuts. Right now, I'll prepare myself to look at the currently available documentary shorts. I'll probably give the longest ones separate posts and the shortest one a capsule post. Or maybe, one single post. What I decide will appear in the next few days.
No comments:
Post a Comment