I watched not just two but all the eleven short films. One reason I got through it all was the brevity of most of them – some of them had the titles and credits making up one-third of the total length of the movie! And the other reason for going through all of them was to see if one is better than the other or worse – a kind of Russian Roulette. And just like roulette there were a few live ammunitions in there – like, The Soldiers, Powerhouse Books – the Musical, American Spirit, Table, and may be also The Bridge. The others were banal to my taste, at least from the story-point-of-view.
What I liked best about Hillman Curtis’ shorts was the cinematography. The camera work was brilliant in most of the films: the movement, the focus, the framing. Similarly the characterization and acting by most of the characters were quite vivid and realistic – without being just theatrical. Where some of the shorts failed, in my opinion, is with regard to the story-telling: lacking in the beginning, middle and the end. They seemed more like pieces pulled out of full-length features.
The Soldiers was short and powerful. It spoke powerfully of the now and the later fused together in a more evocative Now. It was reminiscent of two other short movies I had seen just a month ago: “Visiting Hours” by Steve Hughes, and “Lullaby”by Kevin Markwick. I guess they all explore the mystery of life and death.
The Powerhouse Books Musical and the Soldiers were quite interesting for the use of color and Black and white in order to speak of two different realities that are inter-connected: here the Past and the Present.
Hillman Curtis inspires me about how everyday characters and incidents can be visually depicted to make them layered narratives and more evocative in the process.