Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers

This film appeared in a selection of short films on the Sundance Channel (U.S. independent film channel). I had videotaped the program to watch later, and I was blown away when I saw this. The whole thing runs about 10 minutes and I watched it over and over and over. It's just so clever. And the music rocks! If you appreciate comedy, if you a appreciate well-made films, if you are a drummer: you'll love this short.

This is a rather amazing musical short, as it looked as if it took forever to choreograph it. As a couple leave their apartment, a group of six odd people watch and wait until they are gone. Then, like a strike team, they break into the house and go from room to room playing music using household items such as food processors, glasses and doors as they drum and drum rhythmically. It's very infectious and high quality, so you'll likely find yourself tapping your feet or moving to the music. It is a film that would probably appeal most to teens, though anyone can enjoy it. Plus, even if this "isn't your thing", you can't help but admire the actors and film makers as the film must have taken extraordinary efforts to coordinate all of this frenetic action.

When an elderly couple leave their apartment to walk the dog, a team of 6 very serious looking people enter the apartment on a strict time scale. The group proceed from kitchen to bedroom to bathroom to front room, using everything they find to create different patterns of beats and grooves.

I didn't have a clue what this was about when I watched it. At the start I assumed that the group were criminals or something the way they all dressed like cops from the Sweeney and walked with menace. However when they all got into the flat and began using things like blenders, toothpaste, pills etc to make beats I got into it real easy.

I was actually doing my ironing when watching this (a bit sad and domesticated!) and the beats are so good I actually began to bop to them! My favourite was the heavy baseline that they got off a stretched out condom!

The range of objects they use is inventive – but what makes it better is how good the beats sound. They are really funky….I thought that it would get old after a few minutes – but the beats kept me riveted for the whole 10 minutes. The ending is kinda cool but the short is really all about the beats!

Overall – different, clever, inventive, funky. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good beat.

Tradition has it that a short film proceeds the main features at film festivals, and Gothenburg Film Festival is no exception. I've seen shorts at this festival for ages, and they rank between annoyingly useless and downright masterpieces (such as "The wrong trousers"). "Six drummers..." is a story of six drummers who break into an apartment and make music on whatever they find inside (such as toasters, medicine packs, slippers and books). It's playful, innovative and a fresh breeze. The idea is superb, and the perfect timing of the actors/drummers is amazing. I sincerely hope that this film gets all the attention and appreciation it deserves and wins all awards available. Short films are often underrated and seldom shown. Perhaps this small masterpiece can convince theatre owners to add shorts before their feature showings. It can well be as effective for the whole cinema-going experience as an entre/appetizer can be for the whole dinner. "Six drummers..." puts you in the perfect mood for a complete movie experience. Plus, the music is amazing.

Martin, Sweden

Swedes are the most orderly people on the planet. Their sense of propriety is something that this American can only wonder about. That's why this little film escapes me.

The whole point of this is that the six folks who break in are not odd-looking, but quite ordinary and respectable looking. All the objects, even the objects in the bedroom are the most ordinary. The music itself is ordinary. The edge of the film is the confluence of these three ordinary elements: ordinary people where they don't belong, making music of things not so intended.

If you are not one who obsesses about order, then this will not have any resonance and will look like what it is, a student film.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.