Castor & Pollux

I stumbled across this short in the Director's website, and it's a gem. The story is simple, but not shallow. There are many layers to this film. This is really interesting work that dares to explore human feelings, not resorting to the usual guns, blood and cgi that plagues our screens these days. The acting is terrific. Hermione Cahill tells a lot with a look and Sam Smith has a very expressive physicality that takes over the screen.

Don't miss the moment between them when they are not together. They are together even when they are separate.

The Director has great taste and the camera does not distract from the core of the story. Again, that is not to say that it has not been skillfully placed, but in this film, it's placement is in total harmony with the story.

I'm not sure why this film is named after the Greek twin brothers. Perhaps it is referencing the ideal of the intertwined souls being together for eternity in their immortality, before it then takes this idea apart with the reality of the relationship that we see here. The woman is quite unresponsive to anything the man says or does and, although he will try to break through this, he does so with the knowledge that he isn't going to make anything work or spark here. This rather cold relationship is the whole film and we very clearly see the differences when they are together and when he is out.

The previous few films I have watched from Briand tended to be beautifully made but to have plots that are less important. Here he more or less keeps the high standard of visual and audio delivery but ironically the narrative is almost too obvious to satisfy because it feels clunky. The woman being free without her partner but totally unresponsive with him even when the same music plays tells you all you need to know. As a metaphor for their relationship it is almost too clear in terms of their individual actions and I felt like this broke my interest somehow, like it wasn't trying to do more than the basis. I am not sure why the film also references Jim Jarmusch so heavily too – the second dance scene is a straight-lift and to make such an important part of the film be about the reference rather than this film seemed strange. I also am not sure why the film was in French other than just for the sake of the style.

It still looks good and I like the very cold feel to the film, but it almost felt too obvious and clunky in terms of content, and the style was not strong enough to get over that for me.