Fauve

Today I went to the annual showing of the Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts. I've gone to these showings for at least a decade and must admit that this year's batch was the most god-awful films....all of them very depressing and a few so depressing that I left the theater wanting to shoot myself!! Among the five films, "Fauve" gets my pick for the second most depressing and awful short. The acting is really, really good....the story was about as enjoyable an experience as eating glass.

The story involves two French-Canadian kids who are playing around some dangerous places. Of all the places, however, the worst turns out to be a construction-like setting. While the place appears abandoned, it isn't and the boys end up hiding in a quarry. The bottom of it, surprisingly, is like quicksand--and soon the two boys become stuck and seriously in risk of drowning. What's next? Remember...the film is depressing!

The acting by the kids is really nice--and that's why I appreciated the film even though I hated watching it. However, I also think it's the weakest of the five films and cannot see how it was nominated nor do I think it has a huge chance of winning. I also thought the symbolism about the fox near the end felt a bit pretentious.

Very well made short with some great performances by the child actors! Despite the tragic content I couldn't stop thinking about how as a child I was terrified by quicksand and how I never encountered it in my entire life.

Childhood, beauty, loss, death, time and nature. Really good short. The child performances are great, the cinematography is at times fabulous and I really loved its message. When the best things happen, playing with your friend in the green fields, something can happen and ruin your life. But even when that happens, no one will be there to really understand your pain and sorrow and time will move on and things will keep going while you feel guilty and sad. And nature will be destructive and beautiful at the same time. But, that's how life is. When you least expect it, nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spots. Its a small, quiet, but poetic short

'Fauve' (translation: wildcat) is an excellently timed 17 minute short movie. A complete but raw boyhood experience, flowing in perfect cinematic prose- rising to a crescendo, with time enough on the other side, to catch your breath. The humanity is this- you are off screen together with the second youngster, searching for assistance, not wallowing in the mud, to witness the inevitable finality. I thank the director, Jeremy Comte, for such grace. This, combined with spot-on casting of the youths, is icing on the cake.

It helps to be bilingual. The Canadian French flowed easily. Just once, it was punctuated with a classic "F..k You" in American English. A total riot, for the linguists out there!

Fauve is a must see for everyone.

Saw this at the MSPIFF and I can't stop thinking about how beautiful it was! The acting is superb. The script is a masterpiece and the cinematography is breathtaking. All of the post production is done beautifully as well. A must see if you get the chance!