The Clap

A nice comedy. About a man and his desire to be, using his applaudes, part of the concert. Interesting for the smart exploration of passion, for the clash between music fan and pianist, for the delicate nuances, for humor and for the final impression to discover a sort of animation for the state after its end. Touching, simple, amusing, it gives not exactly a remarkable impression but a lovely state about small, ordinary people as parts of a noble project.Steve Furst gives a real , real admirable performance.

A classic music fan no longer goes to concerts but now prefers to buy CD's instead. When questioned on this he recalls the events that led him to stop. See the man always want to be the first to applaud a performance so that he can be part of the event and contribute to the art. When he picked up on the work of pianist Krzysztof Veneer he dedicated himself to being the first to applaud, however his contributions were not always appreciated.

A very slight short film but one that is easily enjoyable mainly because it is imaginative and different. The plot is nonsense but it does allow some nicely comic moments as well as a general air of bemusement to come across. I felt it could have done more in terms of laughs and perhaps pushed the bounds of reality a bit further than it was already doing but I still enjoyed it. Lindsey directs well and the film generally looks good.

The cast mostly buy into the material but none more so than the title character as played by Steve Furst, who will probably be best known for his part in the brilliant Orange "don't let a phone ruin your film" adverts. He is suitably geeky and anal and he is a joy even if writer Lindsey could have given him much better material to get into. Bamber works well with his eccentric musician – he doesn't have the run of the film but he is good in his small moments.

Overall then an amusing short film thanks to some imaginative delivery and a good performance from Furst. The material could have been stronger, funny and more imaginative but, for what it is, it is funny and worth a look if you are in a bit of a silly mood.

I really enjoyed this short, which I saw at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

It follows a classical music fan who becomes devoted to a preening concert pianist, Krzysztof Veneer, but this relationship is different from every other fan infatuation, given the fan's particularly irksome way of showing his jubilation.

At the end of every performance he attends, the Clapper does what his name suggests: he claps, obtrusively. His encyclopaedic knowledge of all things musical means he can second-guess the performer and other spectators, and clap precisely at the moment the performance ends. This means his (very loud) pair of hands are the first to be heard on any recordings of the music.

However, Veneer grows incensed with the Clapper's excoriating intrusions at the end of his playing, and following a brusque altercation, resolves to fight back and turns the tables of the Clapper, by using music….

'The Clap' looks and sounds great. It's very elegantly shot in 'scope, and has a great sense of atmosphere and place, with the shots of London at night and the concert hall interiors being particularly evocative. The performances are great too, with both Steve Furst and David Bamber giving their all in roles that are eccentric, to say the least. The classical music is also superb; that which is chosen is superbly integrated and the original score (by James Francis Brown) is buoyant and very easy on the ear.

It also succeeds in being quite touching, since any fan who idolises any musician (or writer, or director, or singer etc. etc.) will be able to relate (to a certain extent) to the Clapper's obsession, and his fastidious cataloguing of his musical collection and maintenance of equipment.

It's a slight fable, maybe, but a wholly likable one, and it will have you in stitches for most of it – and smiling for the rest. You have to hand it to the film-makers and producers for achieving such a polished short on such limited resources.

Seek it out! (The production company is BreakThru Films)

This is a funny short film about an obsessive-compulsive music fan who has become so obsessed with his own sense of self-importance that he's forgotten to just sit back and enjoy the music. Steven Furst (not to be confused with the American actor of the same name) is a fan who is so detail oriented that he literally attends one pianist's every concert just so he can show everyone how brilliant he (not the pianist) is by clapping at the exact second the pieces end. Given the style of music, it really is hard to know when the piece ends, so this nut sits there with sheet music to count every note in order to be the first to clap--proving his superiority to everyone because HE is the ultimate fan and music lover.

This is all handled in such a clever deadpan manner that I just couldn't help but enjoy the film immensely. The acting was lovely, the writing spot on and the story was directed beautifully. However, it also gave me a chance to pause and think about my own little obsession (reviewing on IMDb). I am, as of this date, the most prolific reviewer on this site with well over 5600 reviews. Now I wonder if perhaps I, too, sometimes am such a movie "expert" that I miss the simple pleasure of a film due to my strong need to be critical...and perhaps prove something to others. Owch!