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It all begins with what might be the aftermath of a crime: A man with a
bandaged face sitting on the balcony that has a hole in its railing, and
from the torn police line, one might guess somebody has been pushed
through. The police arrives in due time and as the man is arrested, the
camera pans back to show the goings-on on the other balconies of the
apartment building in question, and we see rather random events happening
on them, from a photo shoot to a birthday party to a man hiding outside
from whatever spooky might occur inside - seemingly random occurences all,
and only gradually do we get the idea that many, maybe all of them might be
connected, and might lead to inescapable disaster. Now there's
one film that deserves, no demands repeat viewing. All played out as one
uninterrupted shot, it has many a narrative thread happening physically
next to one another, threads whose connections to one another become clear
only in hindsight - it's pretty much the complexity of a feature film
rolled into a short of under ten minutes, masterfully brought to the
screen by visionary minds. However, it's not so much the logistical
mastery that's so fascinating about this short, it's its sheer willingness
to entertain. Thus the film is an endearing compilation of genre motives,
from the scary to the hilarious, from the melodramatic to the pulpy, often
intentionally exaggerated in their approach, but never moronic or
pretentious, and while I'm almost certain that Alfred Hitchcock's Rear
Window has been a major inspiration for this one (not in story, just
in premise), the end result is highly original nevertheless and feels like
a pure labour of love. Definitely recommended!
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