The Black Hole

This movie is only three minutes long, but it is enough to describe man's greediness. I thought once again if you could get anything, you would continue to want.

A man is working in the office late at night and he has to copy many pieces of paper. A black hole is printed on one of them. He finds that he can get something through it. Then he decides to use that black hole to get the bills in the safe.

The story is simple and very easy to understand. Even so, the messages are certainly in it. Also, it is just funny. When I finished watching this short, I felt it is bad thing to want too much. However, if I were in the similar situation, I would do the same thing.

Silently and in three minutes this little short film delivers a single punch-line that is an end to the tale and it does it is a very enjoyable way. An office worker is busy doing pointless photocopying late at night and is clearly tired and fed up with the whole affair. When the copier produces a piece of paper with a black circle on it he finds that it somehow creates a void in any object he puts it against. So taking a chocolate bar out of the vending machine by creating a void in the glass is a given, but it takes mere seconds for his ambitions to be greater.

A simple morality tale this one but well delivered as a contained idea – get in, get out and satisfy the audience with the slightest of offerings. There is no dialogue here but it still works because the idea is simple and delivered well. I laughed at the end, although it did have a certain dramatic edge to it as well. A very simple short film but the idea is quickly developed and delivered which made it surprisingly satisfying and punchy.

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.

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

'The Black Hole (2008)' looks like a mid-2000s advertisement for a chocolate bar, the sort of thing in which an unhappy office worker is given a specific brand of chocolate and his world goes from black-and-white to technicolour, as it were. In fact, this would've been a perfect ad for 'Snickers' if it finished a little earlier and had a "get some nuts!" tag at the end. Aesthetic aside, this is a really concise and confident short film about a man who discovers that the office printer may in fact not be of this world when it prints a magic black hole capable of bypassing any surface it is pressed up against. The thing is an example of the perils of greed, with an appropriately dark ending and a (subtly) satirically comical tone. It's an entertaining and intriguing experience that makes the most of its premise and doesn't outstay its welcome. 7/10.