By Modern Measure (2006)

Director:

Matthew Lessner

Writer:

Matthew Lessner (writer)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

As part of an ongoing, unaired TV series (By Modern Measure,) an amateur French sociologist presents his observations on a day in the life to two young Americans who meet by chance outside a Taco Bell on October 08, 2006. |

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Anne-Sophie	...	She
Adam Mortemore	...	He
Diego Ongaro	...	Narrator (voice)

Runtime:

USA:5 min (original version)

Country:

USA

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Filming Locations:

Fontana, California, USA

Company:

Monte Lomax Productions

Trivia:

Financed entirely with prize money from The Tom Berman Most Promising Filmmaker Award won by Matthew Lessner at the 2006 Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Banality

The idea of doing a short film about banality and the gap between consumerism and the tragedies in life is a great idea. The problem, though, was in the execution, as the director chose to go for an artsy-fartsy Godard-like look along with some pointless visuals instead of sticking with what was a great idea.

The film begins with a young couple meeting outside the Taco Bell. As the narrator described how they talked about totally unimportant things (such as which foods they ate or the number of Mountain Dews they consumed), he also often included statistics on tragedies that were occurring at that very moment. So, as the couple frolicked in the countryside, they were oblivious of the wretched things in life--too wrapped up in consumerism and puppy love to look beyond their own little world.

As I said, this is a great idea. BUT, the film takes this wonderful idea and tries way too hard to look like an old French New Wave short film (complete with the obligatory black and white cinematography). And, to further achieve this look, you'll notice that the narration of what the couple are doing and what they actually are doing often doesn't fit at all--making the film look very sloppy and cheap--or exactly like some of the New Wave films that eschewed quality film work or composition. In the end, though, to me it just seemed pretentious and totally lost sight of the goal. Pointless scenes of the girl bleeding or the guy playing with a scorpion just seemed like some person's idea of what a "sophisticated" film should look like, though I just think it looked cheap and dumb--with a good plot idea that unfortunately got lost in the process.