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★★★
Written and Directed by: #ViktorJonsson
Starring: #EleanoreKnox and #MiaSfara
Short film review by: Brian Penn
You want fame, well right here's where you start paying...in sweat!....ah it makes you want to slip on a pair of leggings and dance on the bonnet of a taxi. But we're not talking about the Alan Parker directed classic from 1980; nor thankfully the hideous TV spin-off that spawned the kids from fame. But this particular take on fame is an entirely different affair from the frothy alternatives to which we’ve become accustomed.
A seven minute film examines the subject as a more abstract concept, and from the opening frames is a challenging experience for the viewer. Grab the nearest dictionary and fame will be defined along the following lines; the state of public notoriety due to a level of achievement in life. Something reasonably straight forward that is instantly relatable. However, the film provides no dialogue to assist the narrative and we are left with a series of sharply cut images that offer little in the way of reasonable explanation.
The spotlight falls on a solitary young woman (Eleanore Knox) who is preparing for a performance of some description. The lights go up with an expectant audience in tow. Then a complex dance begins with flashback to the nervous and edgy prelude; deep contemplation of the trials ahead and then back into the battle for acceptance and recognition.
Whilst it’s incredibly well shot with a keen eye for physical drama, it becomes a curiosity for essentially the wrong reasons. The audience is not engaged by the narrative but the need to work out exactly what’s going on. There are elements of mime and improvisation in a piece that veers from fantasy to reality via the sub-conscious state. But after six minutes of the stick a carrot arrives in the final scenes. It’s a pleasing finale to an annoyingly long preamble. It might sound harsh, but for a short film we expect the premise to arrive much sooner. The reward is there, you just have to wait for it.
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