The Lift

Short film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1973 when he was at USC. It shows style and control, but has a flimsy, unengaging story, unlike his "A Field Of Honor" which is commercially available on the same DVD.

Shot in black and white and featuring an original jazz score, The Lift tells a man versus machine story.

Shows some of his later conceits. The opening is a process montage sequence similar to the ones he effects in the first minute of Back To The Future. The sense of dark irony is something that resurfaces in Zemeckis' later work.

For some directors it is really quite interesting to look back and see what they did before they got famous – for example Steve McQueen's art installations are interesting to view in the context of how he directs in films such as Hunger and 12 Years a Slave. However it other cases it is just a curiosity to see student work and think to oneself about how a very successful mainstream career came after such an unmemorable student film. In case you can't guess, the latter is the case with Robert Zemeckis' first student film here.

Shot in dialogueless black & white with a jazz score, it is the story of man versus machine, in this case a man going to work having to deal with an elevator. In terms of plot it doesn't really do much and lacks a specific direction – it doesn't play particularly to comedy, to horror, to tension, to thoughtfulness etc. Instead it tells the story and Zemeckis seems to be more about technique, framing etc than he is about telling a good story in an engaging way. Worth a look for big fans of Zemeckis or for students struggling with their own films and wondering if they can ever progress, but otherwise it is quite a dull film that I doubt I'll remember a week from now.