The Black Hole

Short films almost always carry some kind of moral. Usually short films pose a simple but rather important question and answer it. Even if it's a tiny cartoon, it almost always has a theory of common sense.

In this case, such rhetoric works one hundred percent. Choosing between the temptation of evil and the complexity of good, a tired office worker chooses a more convenient one after a working day. With the help of a sheet of paper printed from a printer with a magic black hole, he gets himself a "Snickers" from a vending machine with food and drinks, and then the requests become serious, which turns into a fatal outcome.

In three minutes, Philip Sansom and Ollie Williams showed the perniciousness of greed simply and because of this gracefully. It is not necessary to make whole films or TV series about this, because it is enough to draw a fairly clear metaphor and accurately reflect its consequences.

Watching this short film will not take much time, so I advise you to open this video on YouTube to think about the question: "Do you let your greed or not?"

Today we have a shortfilm called "The Black Hole", released in 2008 but I descovered it only one month ago. Everything happens inside an office during the night. The directors and writers of the short (Phil Sansom and Olly Williams) chose Napolen Ryan as the only character of the film, and it's wonderful to see how his face expresses all his thoughts. At this sci-fi story a worker makes photocopies at the machine but suddenly something happens, something weird. At the begining only a dull thing but at the end it becomes amazing and exciting. As far as I'm concerned, it's a great exercise to make a shortfilm when you are a cinema student because you need to create a completely meaningful creation in only three or five minutes. "The Black Hole" is a film that everybody must watch because it is very short and really thrilling. You want to play it again and again and maybe you will feel a little bit scared at the end.

A man, using a copying machine, is presented with a large sheet of paper with a big, black spot on it. It turns out it is a transportable hole. One can place it on a wall and be able to reach through it. The potential is amazing, but we are greedy creatures, and sometimes we don't think before we act.

A special gift. to a bored clerk. the too many posibilities to use it. and, the error as result of deep sin. modern in every aspect, it reminds the old Arabian Nights. for the moral, for the character who is transformed, step by step, by his discover, for the end who reminds the limit of the bocke by reality. a film about greed, at the first sigh. in fact, only the subtle question "what you do if..." is the basic source of seduction and challenge for the viewer.

While working after hours copying documents, the bored clerk kicks and punches the buttons of the photocopy machine when it jams. The photocopier releases a piece of paper with a black circle in the center, and when the clerk puts his cup of coffee on the spot, he discovers that it is indeed a black hole. The clerk uses the black hole to get a chocolate bar from a vending machine. Then the greedy employee decides to use the black hole to open the door of a room with a safe and steal the money from inside. However, he does not reach the wads of notes on the bottom and enters in the safe to take all the money out with tragic consequences.

"The Black Hole" is a short and deep tale of greed of human nature. It is impressive how the writers and directors Philip Sansom and Olly Williams were able to make a short of less than 3 minutes running time without any line and succeed in transmitting one of the seven deadly sins ( "Avaritia") so perfectly and with right dose of humor. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): Not Available