Bruno

Sam Goetz, USA

Fiction, 2007, 34'

Derek is a misanthrophic and asthmatic boy. He is a bicycle enthousiast and wants to be strong and willy. He live with his brother Bruno, who embodies the perfect american boy, sportive and healthy, but terribly sensitive and sitcom-loving. Their coexistence is not easy, as it seems Derek is jalous of Bruno's healthy body, and bored by his over-sensitive personality, very easy to influence and somewhat childish.

Even with some lenght, the camera portraits the two brothers and ask the question of the place of each character in this closed world (Trenton, New Jersey), and how different persons can get along, but there is behind the brothership the question of how the body and the mind are linked. Which one makes the other ? Derek, trying to overhelm his asthme with his sportive efforts, while the normal life seems to be out of reach, is he pathetic or strong ? And the brother Bruno, who is the american winner, the very ordinary boy, who has no efforts to do to be a good basket player, but who can cry in front of an ordinary sitcom, and has sentenses about « lisetening to one's heart », what is he really ? None of them really accept what they are, but both are unable to change, despite how hard they try.

The camera gives an large importance to the scenery, an industrial and deserted city, while the secondary characters are only support for the two protagonists, played by two very convicing actors (which I can't say for the others). Far away from all the clichés, two contrasted young men trying to be someone...

Lacreme Napuletane (Napolitane tears)

Francesco Satta, Italy

Fiction, 18'

It's an old story in Italy : the gap between North and South, il nord and il mezogiorno, a topic for jokes and for many comic movies too. A kind of cliché. And cliché is precisely the material of this film, the first short of a former journalist from Bologna. Two men, a businessman from Milan, and a retired man, very demonstrative, from Naple, are in the same train. The secondary characters are ordinary figures of the italian comedy too : the young soldier, the couple of english tourists, the fat lady... Nothing is real in the characters, the illusion is not the goal here.

The film goes so far in the demonstrative show of indifference to illusion that the scenery moving outside the train is made by projection of old postcards of an idyllic and perfect Italy. And when a character takes a taxi, he is in a car, in front of a projection of another postcard, a wink to the old car scenes, but with a still image. All the set in false, unreal, absurd, and the public is delighted to find new inventions, to see the scratches on the postcards... This kitsh universe touches the lights too, with a too colored, overexposed photo.

Nothing's real. But this is not an experimental film. The film is served by a very clever script, with situations and dialogues that obtains a universal laugh of every kind of audience. The actors, in their caricatural roles are very credible and strong, which give a contrepoint to the climate of irreality.

This film recieved a mention from the Press Jury of Clermont Ferrand, but the great succes was for the public : in town, you couldn't mention this film without bringing a smile on the face of any one who had seen it.

I am Bob

Donald Rice, UK

Fiction, 2007, 19'

A moving plan shows us some tabloid covers, and this is our first meeting with Bob Geldof, the rock star famous all over the world for his charity actions. The camera is in Bob Geldof's Limousine. An stupid circonstances leads Bob Geldof to get stranded in a look-alike convention, alone, without money or anything to proove his identity... His only way to pay for a taxi would be to win the look alike contest...

The situation is simple, and the realisator has the subtility not to do too much from it. There are enough situations to create laugh without having to underline it with gags and funy scenes. The humour is in the atmosphere, the roles, the actors, and everything seems very natural, which enforce the laugh.

The actor who embodies Bob indeed has something of an old rockstar, and his physical credibility is onfirmed by his acting. He is the serious character in the film, the one who is in trouble and has to settle it. He is confronted with some locals (as the perfect owner of the motel), and with the look alike... Meeting Saddam Hussein in the bathroom can be surprising when you're no aware of the convention, but the reception hall crowded with Marilyn, John-Paul II, Mickael Jackson, Audrey Hepburn and so is a rare spectacle. And of course, there is another candidate for Bob Geldof...

Will he be able to hear all the comments about himself, and to sing in front of a public that expect someone who look like him, and is more ready to accept a caricature that the real person ?

This is a great film. Great actors, great script, very funny and subtle. It was awarded by the Prix Fernand Reynaud, given to the best comic film of the selection.

See the film : http://www.comedybox.tv/index.aspx?filter=picks&clip=10249