This 2010 short film was directed and written by Antonio Padovan. At a dinner party, the audience gets to meet five characters, all very different may I add. A married couple, Richard (Jeff Moffitt) and Amanda (Kirsty Meares); the main protagonist, a man who came alone, Harry Mogulevsky (Timothy J. Cox); and finally a new couple, David (Ben Prayz) and Sophie (Alex Vincent). The film is only just over 12 minutes, but a lot is cleverly said within this small amount of time, that’s why it is a short film worth watching. A lot of revealed about the characters within 12 minutes.
I love the different style of camera work in this film, I feel it gives a different edge to others I have previously seen. I especially liked the use of an intradiegetic narrator; this being Harry. I was watching the film and felt like he may have looked into the camera for a second, but with my Hollywood head on I thought it couldn’t have been, but then when he spoke to the audience directly, walking towards the camera looking at us only, I loved the difference and change. It’s not a film similar to those in Hollywood and I didn’t think it would be, but with most people now-a-days flooded by blockbusters and big cinematic film releases, it’s refreshing to see something different. I also liked the use of long takes within scenes, even though it is a short film and obviously the long takes wouldn’t be as long in a longer film, but it still made a difference to watch you were watching and worked well with the style of the film. The camera was very still and there were few cuts, which meant that the audience could focus on what they wanted to; and I felt that some of the cuts were more focussing on time change, which is clever.
I felt that the film was supposed to be something that is relatable for the audience, a realistic film for them to watch. The witnessing of many different relationships crashing, most predominantly a marriage. The film was definitely heavily based upon relationships, a new relationship, an old one, a past one, or one where the other person doesn’t turn up… Truly experiencing all kinds of situations.
The title is one that is intriguing, yet clever once you’ve seen the film, as it focuses on conversations between the married couple with other people. Additionally, I liked the music that was used as it went well with the film; the music was like classic dinner party music. The dinner party itself, I felt made the audience feel like something was missing before you actually knew what it was. It was patchy in a good way, to give an illusion to the audience something else was happening.
I would recommend this short film, as it was very creative and something rather different stylistically to the common films many watch today. There were fades in between scenes to portray time has passed, lighting changed compared to situations of the house, and there was a very abrupt ending something the audience might be shocked by, or perhaps unknown to what will happen next but never know. It surely is a dinner party where every secret is exploded out, so I would recommend a watch to experience what happens.
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