Sniffer (2006) User Reviews

Dreaming of freedom

[SpeakersCorner · 8/10 · 17 February 2010]

Sniffer is the story of a man literally weighed down by society. The crushing realities of work (surely one of the worst jobs in the world), home and life in general have robed him and his fellow citizens of any joy or hope. He is only free in his dreams, when he can escape his bonds and float free.

When a bird enters his enclosed, oppressive world, it dies. Not wanting to follow its tragic example, he flees and, with a last farewell, escapes to float free to who knows where.

This is a lovely film about the need to be ourselves and to express our individuality despite the pressures to conform. It thoroughly deserves its awards.

Our local film society, Crystal Palace Pictures, paired it with Milk, the story of a man who refused to be beaten down and stood tall for what he believed in. He just didn't wear big heavy boots.

Surreal short

[ID_alreadytaken · 7/10 · 20 December 2006]

Bobbie Peers Sniffer was the first Norwegian movie ever to win the Palme D'Or in Cannes, and that was really my only interest in seeing this film. I'm glad it won, otherwise I would never have seen this surrealistic masterpiece.

The plot itself is weird. A man pushing his head to the wall, it may look like. But very soon, we see that he is lying in the seiling. Everybody in this film is walking around with some heavy boots strapped to their feet, apparently to keep them from flying away. When the man from the ceiling notices that birds fly around freely, he unstraps his boots and fly away.

It's not very easy to say what the movie is about, but what I think of the films theme, is that it is about people afraid to fly away from the things they know. There is no dialogue in this film, yet it is very effective because we here the sound of the heavy boots the people are wearing and the strange, sometimes creepy music.

Sweet and Surreal

[Celestial_me · 10/10 · 28 July 2006]

The film starts with a man lying face upwards on the ceiling. he breaks a lamp to get his wife to notice this, and the wife unties herself from her bed and puts a very heavy pair of shoes on, fetches a stick with a hook on it, and pulls him down, straps him to his bed and then herself to hers. The next day, we see the man at work, where he sprays the armpits of sweaty men and then smells them. A pigeon flies into the room and breaks its neck on what one can assume is either a fan in the ceiling, or simply the window; the man takes the dead bird and leaves the building, where he seems to be inspired by the flight of other pigeons. He returns to his wife, removing his clothes on the way, and takes off his shoes. Every single person in this film is at least slightly overweight, and everyone has these incredibly heavy boots on, creating a very special feeling as you constantly hear the clamping when they walk. I liked this film a great deal, and cannot for my life imagine that anyone would not. So see it, if you get the chance; it really lightens up your mood!

Sniffer by Bobbie Peers

[Pavan4315 · 1 March 2015]

Denotative implication - A surreal world. Anti-gravity is the norm. More like a way of life. You have been made to accept that the society lives that way.

But, that's not what this is about. We see organized rhythm within chaos (also, in the edit), an assembly level design at every possible strata of society, also deliberately reflected in the visual design and sound design of the film, which is quite interesting, also because we do not see an iota of social interactions between people, at the least. One man seems to be struggling with this setup. He's probably the only one "sniffing" decadence, a clearly harmful social decadence (I can confidently say so, otherwise he wouldn't be sniffing at armpits of sweaty fat men, yuck!). However, it leeches on to him as an occupational hazard, as he is seen impersonating his deodorant tester-self at home, probably trying hard to make sense of decadence and brainwashing himself to fit into something he clearly has no idea about. (Also, suggested by the fact that he is forcefully brought back down to the ground by his wife) There's a pigeon, but the pigeon, however, meets its end, as the stench of "decadence" becomes too much to handle. Before meeting its end though, it somehow epitomizes the significance of decadence, quite literally, and this has a major bearing on the sniffer, who unstraps himself, to metaphorically mimic what the pigeon was trying to suggest - 'Fly away, if you don't want to get bogged down by norms that you have trapped yourself in.'

Connotative implication - A philosophical poem on how the decadence of society's organized assembly-level setup, has a clear bearing on the physiological, psychological and moral ramifications of an individual, thereby the society as a whole, implicitly.

*Sniff, *sniff... /*Writer passes out.*/

I sniff mediocrity

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 24 May 2016]

"Sniffer" is an American 10-minute movie from 10 years ago. The writer and director is Bobbie Peers and even if his name does not sound like it, he is a Norwegian filmmaker. And as a consequence, this one here is also a Norwegian movie. But don't worry, there is no talking in here, so you won't need subtitles if you don't speak Norwegian. The fact that this is an European production may be one reason why this one won so many awards, especially here and in Europe and in particular at the Cannes Film Festival where they really loved it back then and honored it all the ways they could think of. But I cannot share the praise. In my opinion, this was a very mediocre little movie, be it in terms of acting, or especially in terms of the script. Yes it is very absurd, but that is not enough to make it a good movie or exciting watch. It is perfectly fine if a film is not realistic, there exist entire genres that lack realism, but then it has to deliver significantly in other areas and this one here doesn't Thumbs down.

A singularly weird affair that gets back on the imaginative concept regardless of the lack of substance

[bob the moo · 12 April 2007]

A man wakes on the ceiling of his bedroom and breaks a lamp to alert his wife to his predicament. She puts on her heavy boots, unstraps herself out of her bed and uses a hook on a pole to drag him back down. The next day he goes to his job where he works as a deodorant tester, sniffing the armpits of exercising test subjects. On this day though, he faces an event that will change his life forever.

Look, I have written a plot summary for this film the best I can but even then all I do is describe actions rather than look at narrative. Shown on the Best V Best Vol 2 DVD this film was one of a couple that I struggled to understand but, funnily enough, this was the only one where I didn't really have my enjoyment damaged by this. It is a bit of style over substance perhaps but the film is just so weird that I found it quite engaging. Of course there was an element where I wanted more substance or some context to what I was watching but even without it I thought it was interesting.

Peers is obviously due the credit for this because it is his vision and his delivery. OK so I think he did a bad job of delivering a story that I understood but outside of that he did a great job as director, making this world convincing and fascinating. Overall then a very strange film that does very much get by on the imaginative concept rather than substance but, in this case, it does enough to hold the attention.