Modus Vivendi

I watched this as a part of the Open Apperutre Short Film Festival and was surprised to see the level of technical skill that was put into making this short. Shot on 16mm, there are helicopter shots, slow-mo shots, tracking shots, frame by frame animations, and a nice running theme. The images play well against the backdrop of the opera, especially those spectacular slow-motion shots of the two females performing backflips down the sidewalk. At times I felt the artsyness of the whole thing was pushed a little too far. For instance, as the leading lady is dressed in her cowgirl outfit, the way the director played with the rising heat waves and low angle 'through the legs' shots felt overdone. These kinds of shots have been done before. What I wanted to see was what the director was going to do to subvert the genre. Overall I liked the movie. It was definitely a few steps above and beyond your average student film.