The Les Arcs European Film Festival ended on Saturday 23 December. If the cinephile event was once again an opportunity to reveal feature films such as Lean on Pete, The Captain or The Bad Reputation, the shorts did not remain on the margins.
As every year, a short film competition took place. For this ninth edition, held from 16 to 23 December 2017, twenty-four short films, grouped into four programs and selected by Jacques Kermabon (the editor-in-chief of the magazine Bref) were screened in different halls of the Festival. The editorial team was able to attend the fourth selection. Return (without suspense since it is to Los Desheredados by Laura Ferrès that was awarded the 2017 Prize!) on the six videos of this program.
Into the blue, by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (Croatia, Sweden, Slovenia), 2017, 20 min
Into the blue follows the summer daily life of four young teenagers on an island in Croatia. Among them, Julija, 13, returns to this corner that saw her grow up. As a young girl facing strong emotions, she tries during this stay to reconnect with Ana, her best friend. But things have changed: Ana is now in love with a boy. Then begins a subtle game for the different members of this small group to find their place.
Offering a reflection on the diffuse and varied feelings that permeate individuals at this sensitive age, the short film focuses on the birth of the feeling of love, that of friendship that crumbles and evolves, as well as on risk-taking and flirting with danger.
With an impeccable aesthetic, Into the blue marks by its subtle and fair treatment of this delicate period between late childhood and early adulthood. Serious and light, the realization carries us entirely in this work where the sea and water are in the foreground. Thanks to careful photography, Into the blue is bright. But in this bright light always touch, underlying, the depth and gravity that tarnish almost every sunny summer of adolescence …
Diagnosis, by Eva Riley (United Kingdom), 2017, 18 min
Diagnosis is a UFO in the theme it addresses. Sally is a young woman with an atypical job: she plays the role of patients during educational scenarios in medical schools… Serious, efficient and endowed with great self-control, she is very competent in her activity. But as her personal life undergoes a turning point, she will live more and more difficult these "roles" and feelings will begin to flow.
Without trying to make the viewer grasp all the situations of the story, Diagnosis is a confusing work. With recurring elements and a disjointed narrative, the short film nevertheless gets somewhat lost along the way. The director favors close-ups, close-ups, a slow pace and focuses her attention on small details. In the end, it is difficult to tell the story of this work. To choose, we would be able to transcribe more easily our feelings: the impression of having touched with our eyes the complexity of emotions and what their repression generates.
News, 23/06/2016, by Elsa Rosengren (Germany), 2017, 11 min
Like a television newscast, News, 23/06/ 2016 offers several interventions on current events that took place during the period of June 2016: a major referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential campaign in the United States. While these facts are reported as usual in Sweden, in parallel, in Germany, citizens themselves declaim distorted information: weather report presented with originality, clear-cut and dissonant opinions on current events…
Singular in its direction and narration, Elsa Rosengren's short film subtly intertwines reality and fiction. So much so that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. If it is by this choice that the film gains in originality, it is also by this prism that it risks leaving some spectators on the sidelines…
Odd Job Man, by Marianne Blicher (Denmark), 2017, 22 min
Odd Job Man tells the story of a man in his fifties who has just lost his job. In the street, he passes a sign mentioning "Looking for handyman". Interested, he enters and goes to be hired in a drag queen club. The opportunity for him to discover this environment made of shows, rhinestones, sequins and freedom. What will he do with this new opportunity?
It is with a delicacy and intensity that goes crescendo that Marianne Blicher describes this common character (not to say banal) who discovers a whole new universe. During his wandering, his discoveries and his inner journey, the protagonist touches the heart. And the director's desire to leave him behind, silent, as if anesthetized by his feelings, brings even more strength to the work and its moving outcome.
Sleepaway, by Cristina Ruloff (Switzerland), 2017, 9 min
BTV News, a television channel, pays tribute to Cecil Dherty, named "Person of the Year" by TIME magazine. The latter is the inventor of "Sleepaway", a pill that replaces sleep. The short film, in the form of a reportage, shows how people have appropriated this brand new product in their daily lives.
Futuristic (really?) and avant-garde, Cristina Ruloff's short film questions science, time and its management. Is this pill (called a "miracle" by a large part of the population, but decried by a minority) a scientific advance, a progress for humans or a new enslavement? So many questions that Sleepaway highlights and deals with distance, efficiency and a lot of success.
The Frog King, by Arek Biedrzycki (Poland),2017, 17 min
The Frog King begins with a meeting: that of Julia and Robert, who have previously exchanged on the Internet. For their first date at Robert's, Julia was forced to take with her Michael, her 10-year-old son whom she was unable to get babysit. Will they be able to get to know the child with each other? What is the importance of details in the perception and discovery of the other?
The short film, particular in its narration and what it intends to convey, intrigues as much as it destabilizes. The two protagonists remain in the shadows and it is difficult to identify them, like the whole work, which remains quite mysterious in what it wishes to develop. A slice of life without a real story, The Frog King leaves a taste of unfinished business when the credits appear on screen. We come out a little puzzled …
A program of short films that has brought out beautiful, strong, successful works (a particular attention to Into the Blue and Odd job man), as well as others more intriguing, confusing but no less enlightening (Diagnosis, Sleepaway, News, 23/06/2016…). But this panel represents only a small part of the shorts that were screened during the ninth edition of the Les Arcs European Film Festival. To discover all of them, it's here !
