La Carrière de Suzanne (1963)

Recommended

France

Short Feature Film

Original Title: La carrière de Suzanne

Writer/Director: Eric Rohmer

Cinematographer: Daniel Lacambre

Cast: Philippe Beuzen, Catherine Sée, Christian Charrière, Diane Wilkinson

This excellent early short from Rohmer – the second of six films in his Contes moraux series (Moral Tales) – is a perceptive, nuanced and beautifully drawn portrait of three young students (one female, two male), detailing their socially incestuous romantic entanglements in the cafés and bed-sits of Paris. Iain.Stott

Read More

After Death (1915)

Cautiously Recommended

Russia

Short Feature Film

Original Title: Posle smerti

Director: Evgeni Bauer

Writers: Evgeni Bauer, Ivan Turgenev

Cast: Vitold Polonsky, Vera Karalli, Olga Rakhmanova, M. Chalatova, T. Gedevanova

Though it’s perhaps a tad melodramatic for modern tastes, and its central plot point of a young woman committing suicide over unrequited love - rather hokey (it might have worked better with hormonal adolescents- à la Romeo and Juliet - rather than the adults that we have here), Bauer’s distinctive film is, never the less, a thoroughly well made work, filled with cinematic techniques that must have seemed truly dazzling on its original release. Iain.Stott

Read More

The Blood of a Poet (1930)

Highly Recommended

France
Short Feature Film
Original Title: Le sang d'un poète
Writer/Director: Jean Cocteau
Cinematographer: Georges Périnal
Composer: Georges Auric
Cast: Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazac, Jean Desbordes, Fernand Dichamps, Lucien Jager, Féral Benga, Barbette

Divided into four sections, this surrealist mediation on the roles, responsibilities, and sacrifices inherent to the artistic process, mixing stunning trick photography and unforgettable imagery with thought provoking symbolism, is a challenging, distinctive, and above all else fun short feature. Iain.Stott

Read More

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Highly Recommended

USA
Short Feature Film
Director: Buster Keaton
Writers: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joe Mitchell
Cinematographers: Byron Houck, Elgin Lessley
Cast: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly, Ward Crane

An aspiring detective is accused of a crime that he did not commit by the family of his potential fiancée; banished, he returns to his day job as a film projectionist, and dreams of apprehending the real culprit, his dastardly love rival, in Keaton’s thrillingly imaginative short film. Iain.Stott

Read More

Partie de Campagne (1936)

Recommended

France

Short Feature Film

Original Title: Partie de campagne
Director: Jean Renoir
Writers: Jean Renoir, Guy de Maupassant
Cinematography: Claude Renoir
Composer: Joseph Kosma
Cast: Sylvia Bataille, Georges Saint-Saens, Jeanne Marken, André Gabriello, Jacques Borel, Paul Temps

The attractive daughter of a Parisian family, spending an idyllic day in the country, enjoys a brief romantic encounter with a moustachioed local, in Renoir’s much loved, beautifully shot, and tenderly acted though rather cheesily scored and erratically paced short feature. Iain.Stott

Read More