Angoisse (1998)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Blanca Li

Writer:

Blanca Li (writer)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

A young woman tosses and turns in her bed - throwing herself all around due to the ferocity of her nightmare. In her dream she is racing to catch her plane through a busy airport and must deal with all manner of obstacles. |

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Blanca Li
Victor Ramos

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Company:

Première Heure

Wants to be a physical comedy – but it isn't funny once!

A young woman tosses and turns in bed – throwing herself all around due to the ferocity of her nightmare. Inside her head she is racing to catch her plane through a busy airport and must deal with all manner of obstacles from talkative taxi drivers to long queues to inconsiderate people in the airport.

To me a short film doesn't have to do much to be successful – the short running time usually means it only needs to aim to achieve one thing, and do it well. I've seen shorts that have been scary and that's what they've done – it's at the expense of other areas but it's successful because it's set out it's stall to do that and that alone. This film starts out with an artsy shot of someone tossing round in bed, however it quickly becomes clear what this wants to do.

This is a comedy. It has no dialogue as anyone who speaks are speaking rushed gibberish (this is a dream after all) so the focus is on the physical comedy of the lead character rushing all over the place…..and that's the problem. The film doesn't have any funny situations that are hilariously funny or out of the ordinary. Instead the main character does stuff like struggle to get money from a change machine, or try and climb a fence to catch her plane etc. It's nothing special and it's not really funny.

With a different lead this could have been funnier – maybe a comedian who does physical stand up (a French, female Lee Hughes perhaps?). However the lead actress doesn't do the comedy well – yes she runs round and looks flustered, in fact she overdoes her facial expressions for most. She just looks like she trying too hard to be wacky and it doesn't work well.

Overall this tries to be a comedy and it isn't funny. With a better actress and maybe a better director, these average scenes could have been more imaginative and had more of a spark. However as it is, it lacks humour -–her antics are only slightly less than normal. Worse still this builds to a punch line that never comes. Go watch Clockwise with John Cleese – it's a longer, better twist on this scenario.