La bourse ou la vie

Part enigamtic and part dark humored, Jerzy Skolimowski's short "Your Money or Your Life" presents a story about an annoying man who must decide what's the most important thing in his life and the help he can get while staying at an amusing park/fairground. He keeps on bothering another man, asking for money and later on he feels cheated by the other guy as they apparently had agreed on a certain ammount to be given. Yet he keeps on following and bothering the other man, as they moved through different games and plays. It's best not to reveal the point of decision and what it revolves a dangerous scenario; the most I'll say is that the unexpected World War II scenario comes up and turns everything into a serious manner. Will the help needed be enough? Or the person requested for such need can be trusted?

Mr. Skolimowski was a masterful creator during his early short film phase, never a dull image in his works, and plenty use of metaphors, symbolisms and sparse use of dialogues, which allow audiences to see things in a more imaginative manner rather than one where everything has a definitive meaning and everything is spelled out. The odd humor of it all is quite memorable - the man smashing the duck shooting targets is funny - and the dramatic sounds through the whole thing are quite effective in giving hints of things to come.

Must say it took me some views to finally form a whole about this one, and truth be told is not that difficult to follow, it's a case of a small narrative that goes a little jumpy and repetitive until we understand what's at stake with the erratic man who deseperatly needs the money. By then, it feels rushed and a completely different movie - but with a valid criticism as to what both men will deal when things get critical with the potential interference of others. A very unusual film but a good one. 6/10.