Gisèle Kérozène

A righteous Award-winner at the festival of Avoriaz in 1990, this short film by Jan Kounen is utterly twisted and really has to be seen in order to be believed. A handful of extremely ugly and male (!) witches chase each other on motorized brooms through a futuristic, "Metropolis"-like city. There's no dialogue (at least, not the kind you understand) and the witches' outfits are funky and colorful. This is five minutes of pure ingeniousness and laughter. Director Jan Kounen made several other highly recommended short films ("Vibroboy", "Capitaine X" and "Le Dernier Chaperon Rouge") that are all very weird but really creative. The shorts are actually a lot better than his over-hyped long-feature film success "Dobermann".

I remember seeing this short film from Quebec on a Canadian cable movie channel between films in the early 90's, late at night. The first time I noticed it I thought I'd dreamed it, or maybe halucinated it? I'd never seen anything quite like it before.

Fast forward 30 years, and it still left a lasting impression on me. I couldn't recall the name of it (I'm not sure I ever knew it), but some googling for stop motion people flying on broomsticks led me to rediscovering it on You Tube.

Equal parts action-packed, humorous, creative, bloody and downright bonkers, this still impresses me today.

At first glance, the visual appearance of live action characters moving in stop motion is little disorienting. But the way in which the filmmakers make use of it is just so delightful. Equal parts silly fun and technically impressive. There is no dialogue, so language is not a barrier, the action is expressed clearly through visuals, but will still leave you asking, "What did I just see?"

Highly recommended, especially to those interested in experimental film. Sometimes technological limitations actually fuel creativity!

In the middle of a clean and practically deserted modern city, three witch-like fellows are worshiping a strange sort of statue on a plinth. They are disturbed when a fourth witch steals the statue and takes off down the street on his broomstick. The others give chase but it will be a difficult chase that leaves only one winner in a bloody urban battle.

Despite the fact that the words 'from the director of Dobermann' are likely to send me running from any cinema or television screen that they come from but I thought that I would be fair and try to give this short film a chance nonetheless. From the very first scene until the final shot this was as horrible as Dobermann was and had all the flaws that he displayed in his features (that I've seen). Usually short films can cope with being all style and I suppose that if this is your first time viewing one of his films that you might be taken in my the unexpected pace of this film. However I have seen him before and am not won over by this nonsense.

The film has no plot but what it has in its place is horrid, repugnant style that is deliberately grotesque and overblown. It is bloody for the sake of being bloody; it twists the faces of the characters for the sake of being gross and it is simply unfunny and unpleasant to watch. I will acknowledge that the stop-motion technique is clever but only technically – and even then it still looks as rough as a bag of spanners compared to what even low-budget films can do with it.

Overall this may appeal to some and if it appeals to you then by all means check out the rest of Kounen's work. But for me he tries to totally rely on style, violence and excess to make his films work but he cannot do it – his style is not stylish and the sheer grotesque nature of his films offer nothing that appeal to me – and you know what? I'm very glad that a short film like this does nothing for me, it reassures me that, although I'm not very intelligent, at least I'm not as dumb as Kounen thinks I am.

An ugly sorceress steals the fetish (a skull) from two other weird-looking characters. Giselène Kérosène, the sorceress, "flies" away with her broom across the city streets, pursued by the two cretins. All this pursuit short film seems to have been shot (or edited) picture-by-picture: every character's moves are totally jerky. No doubt: Jan Kounen, the French director, has seen the Japanese film "Tetsuo" (an underground masterpiece be Shinya Tsukamoto). The long chase along the town streets is very similar, but more humorous in this case. The character's stupidity is a real pleasure to see, so are all these swift jolting broom travels. The make up, costumes and special effects are awesome. We recognize very well Jan Kounen's world, as we can experience it in "Vibroboy", another Kounen's mad shorts.

This one is actually very short, but hilarious. If you could find it anywhere, just watch it! You won't regret a little delirious moment!

From the very beginning every shot is masterfully crafted. >Without a doubt this short is one of the ultimate works of >frame-by-frame animation. Not only is it shown beautifully, but >it is the result of a wildly creative imagination. The director >really knows his st