T.R.A.N.S.I.T. (1998) User Reviews

Well made but rather nasty

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 November 2008]

This short was in part four of the "Short Cinema Journal"--a film I rented from Netflix but which appears to have originally been a monthly film series for people who like mediocre modern short films AND love to have the DVD chock full of commercials. I have so far tried two of the Journal's DVDs and felt enraged at the horrible way that a viewer needs to navigate the disk in order to see the films. Talk about an over-produced and overly complicated way of doing this! While I have and will continue to see as many shorts as I can, I really doubt if I'll bother with the Journals because of these factors.

This is a very odd little animated film that I didn't particularly like but I sure have to appreciate the effort it took to make it. At first, the different segments in the short seem unrelated and odd. What you think ties them all together is that you see each segment begin from a paper label on the side of an old piece of luggage. As the film is often in an Art Deco style, you assume the evens portrayed occur in the 20s or 30s. However, the more you watch, the more you realize that the characters are the same AND the story is being told backwards. This is all immensely clever and the art work is very nice.

The problem for me, though, is that the story itself is rather sleazy and dark and I hated the characters. Plus, it is very adult--and very, very sexual. Its themes of adultery and murder make this an adults only sort of short.

Overall, a lovely film visually and the film makers are amazingly talented. I just wish the story had been more engaging as I became bored with all the sordidness.

The perfect short

[Bassem · 10/10 · 22 July 2000]

I discovered a treasure in film making and I want to tell the world about it. This stylish animated short tells the tale of a suitcase thrown into the sea and the people linked with it. I cannot tell you more. The story is told in a very different way and is full of twists. I call it the perfect short because it established for me the need for this form of film. T.R.A.N.S.I.T would not work as a feature length movie, yet as a short it is revelation.

Amazing short. Definitely not your typical Hollywood love story

[Rectangular_businessman · 9/10 · 10 September 2017]

Pretty much like "Memento"(Though it predates it by two years) "T.R.A.N.S.I.T." does a pretty clever use of reverse chronology, following a sordid story of love and revenge from its bitter conclusion to its seemingly innocent beginning.

And while romance its a very common theme for many, many animated short films, this short does not shy away from showing some of the least pleasant sides of romance which are often ignored in more idealistic and family-friendly tales...But the story is told in such a beautiful manner than even the darkest aspects of the plot can be easily ignored in favor of the stylish animation and the poetic imagery , evoking many different kinds of emotion during all its length without needing to use any word.

"T.R.A.N.S.I.T." is a small, undiscovered gem that deserves much more appreciation. Too bad Piet Kroon didn't direct anything else after this. I honestly think he had enough vision to eventually become one of the brightest luminaries in the history of indie animation.

Guns and roses

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 January 2018]

"T.R.A.N.S.I.T." is a Dutch/English co-production from 1998, so this one has its 20th anniversary, that resulted in this little animated 12-minute short film and managed decent success for writer and director Piet Kroon, including a BAFTA nomination. For him, it was the second effort of his career as the man in charge and quite a success for him who was in his 30s still back then. Nowadays he is more known for being a helping hand in the art department mostly, but his efforts there also include a few really famous animated movies. As for this one here, it takes us almost a century back in the pastinto a world of femmes fatales, sex and violence, so this is definitely an animated film for grown-ups as some of what you see is pretty explicit too. I must say that looks-wise and in terms of animation I liked it a bit, but the story as well as the (too) frequent change of location did not do a whole lot for me. Pity as there clearly was the potential for more in here and the plot does the aura no justice. I give this short film a thumbs-down and overall cannot agree with the awards recognition it received. It's not a failure by any means, but the negative is more frequent than the positive in my opinion. If you still want to go for it, be assured that you won't need subtitles as there is no audible dialogue in here, neither Dutch nor English, but my suggestion is to skip it.