Passionless Moments

The short PASSIONLESS MOMENTS is one of Jane Campion's student films, made in 1983 during her time at Sydney's Australian Film and Television School. She directs a script written by Gerard Lee consist of ten short vignettes on embarrassing or awkward little moments that happen to everyone at some time or another, but which we seldom think about: a man stretching his arm out accidentally makes his neighbour think that he's waving to him, and thus instigates an awkward interaction between two men who have never even spoken before; a boy who has just bought green beans from the shop imagines that they will explode if he doesn't get them home in 20 seconds; a depressed man lying on the floor and looking at the ceiling notes the myriad motes of dust visible in the light.

All of the vignettes are narrated by the same man in a rather dry and analytical voice, which together with the quirky themes endows PASSIONLESS MOMENTS with humour. I wouldn't rank this among my top shorts, but I nonetheless am happy it's in my collection, and this is, along with "Peel", one of Campion's early successes.

Campion and Lee had the audience roaring at their look of everyday moments we take for granted. The narrator's deadpan voice adds a nice sardonic touch. My favorites were the man singing "that 70's song about cleaning up jeans," and the little girl with the tissue box. An amusing little film, made suddenly poignant by the narrator's last voice over - approximately 'there are over one billion moments in a neighborhood, and most of them are gone before we realise it.'

Jane Campion's "Passionless Moments" is a short film containing ten short films. More than being simply short, they are tiny. The film deals with nonsense that goes through one's mind that no one dares share when asked "what are you thinking about". It's really a wonderful concept for a short film, and the result is a funny, touching piece of work. It would be impossible to pick a favorite bit, and truthfully it would do a disservice to the film itself to try and express the actual occurrences in each mini-short. It might be worth noting that Gerard Lee was indicated in the credits as ex-director. Perhaps that's why the finished product has far more visible passion than the sketches themselves, which comes straight from the filmmaker's chair.

A remarkable first short film by a student (or fresh out of film school) - as much for the script as anything else. I happened to see it on TV as a teenager and then made various other people watch it too when I spotted it coming round again.

The film simply shows a series of short quirky moments in people's everyday lives. For example, a man stretches his arm as he wanders out of his house, and this gesture is mistaken by a neighbour who thinks he's waving at him.

Quirky moments such as these have since become the stuff of observational comedy, except that the ones depicted here are so small that they would pass quite unnoticed if not isolated and commented on by this film.

This is essentially a student film by director Jane Campion. It's black and white. It's a series of vignettes narrated by the same man. Non of the moments are long enough to have lasting impact. The kid has a quirky idea. Eating pork is probably the most compelling mostly because it's about something real. The others are less memorable although I probably won't forget the half-naked guy exercising. As a student film, the black and white looks good and it has some interesting ideas.