A Grand Musical Journey of Lost Love by Xander Fink (Short Film Review)
Okay, so when I decided to do this job I really thought that it would be fascinating to comb through the internet looking for Short films to Review, sort like combing through those cd bins at the old record store hoping to find a gem that you never heard of. Boy, do I miss that! Okay, so I'm showing my age a little, but today I have to say that after watching this film titled "ForePlay the Short" I think I found that little gem of a short film that I will cherish for a long time. Now, why no one has really seen this short film kind of blows me away. It stars Kevin Ryan from the BBC hit show "Copper" and this beautiful African American Actress named Roxanne Dover. It's directed by a relative newcomer Eric Smith-Gunn, who I believe has some acting background. What makes this film brilliant is not so much it's camera work or some of it's clumsy execution. It's joy comes from the message that it create for it's audience without the characters expressing hardly any dialogue (just a short poetic voice over in the beginning from it's male lead to set the tone). The whole film (with a running time of about 15 mins) is mostly music by Adam and the Fish-Eyed Poets. Now, these songs are conducted so brilliantly by music supervisor, Jeannette Kantzalis (from the group the Chubbies) you really forget that the dialogue is completely absent. So you have this film called ForePlay the Short where no one actually does any physical foreplay and you have this two people in a park who draw each other in without touching or saying a word, which basically, some might say, is a form of foreplay. Eric Smith-Gunn, does a great job at keeping the camera at the perfect distance so the audience get's the perfect voyeuristic experience. Not until later on in the film does the camera draw us in closer to show a deeper emotion from it's leads. Now, the actors are simply marvelous on how they present themselves to each other (I'm sure not an easy task to do without dialogue) and not to mention are fantastic to look at. Okay so the big elephant in the room is that she is black and he is white but really in this day and age who really cares. So much is said in this film with just their looks and thoughts you can practically fill in your own story about who and what they are. That's the brilliance of this short film is that it's truly an audience driven short film. I watched it a few times to see if I missed anything and each viewing got simply better. I wondered, as I watched, if the director made a conscious choice in the "thinking sequence" to give the female lead that Maya Angelou Book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" which points strongly to the dignity and courage of black men and women, or the game that the male lead is playing is a metaphor for the game he might be playing with the object of his desire. Hmmm. Just some things to make you think. Now, I must say that at 15 mins (there is a shorter version on You Tube but I suggest you see the long version on Vimeo that contains the opening credits that kind of sets up the film with images of film's setting) it is a little long but because the music is so great you don't really feel the story drag. So, if you have 15 mins to spare out of your day and you want to experience a tiny slice of romantic foreplay I highly recommend this short film. My Rating is scale between 1-10 and I give this film a 8.5. Xander Fink - Short Film Review 2012
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