Tabatô

I guess this is what was expanded into a feature film? The shots seem quite familiar, even…

And it’s in Portuguese (I think? no some other language?), but it’s subtitled in French, and apparently I know enough French now (after Duolinguing for three months) that I understand the subtitles!!!

OK, I had to use Google translate for “ailleurs”.

Gotta agree with the sentiment.

Anyway, this is really good — fascinating imagery. And I can see why they wanted to expand this into a full movie.

Or is this a short version of the movie? It’s been a while since I saw it…

Tabatô. João Viana. 2013.

A piscina

This short is apparently filmed in one long take? It takes place in a mostly dried-out swimming pool, and it’s full of these striking tableaux…

It’s non-narrative, I guess. It’s cool.

A piscina. Iana Ferreira, João Viana. 2004.

Alfama

This is a really, really stylish short with a not totally clear plot. It’s fun.

To digress for a moment — I’m watching these shorts because they’re included as extras on DVDs and blurays I’ve seen, but is there a “real” distribution channel for shorts these days? I know that Wes Anderson released a batch of shorts on Netflix recently, but those were pretty long shorts, and it was “a thing”: They’re being pushed as if they’re a TV series, almost. I’m not very familiar with streaming services anyway, but I don’t think they usually carry shorts (and especially not experimental shorts)? That’s more of a … Vimeo thing, so unmonetised. I guess a wider distribution for shorts was one of the things people talked about when streaming was new, but I don’t think that’s happened, and it’s not difficult to see why: People either want A Big Chunk (i.e., a movie) that they can commit to for a couple of hours, or Something On The TV (i.e., a tv series episode) that they don’t have to pay that much attention to. And a short is a short thing you have to pay attention to, so it’s not… part of what people are interested in?

Anyway.

DVD extras. Might still be the place where people are actually watching shorts.

(Well, and film festivals.)

I like how everything grows more and more out of control — even the light levels.

It’s a good short.

Alfama. João Viana. 2009.