shorts on the criterion channel

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Being able to watch short features that I'd otherwise probably never encounter--and certainly wouldn't bother to get on physical media, at least as standalones--has become my low-key favorite aspect of the CC. Some recent favorites:

A Chairy Tale (McLaren & Jutra): delightful stop-motion animation but the real kicker is the blazing score by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal
Solar Walk (Bucsi): very cool and odd animation; RIYL Planète Sauvage and Samurai Jack
The Beast (Nell & Wahrmann): funny satirical South African riff on colonialism and performance
various Jean Painlevé nature docs: trippy and beautiful

I've seen quite a few others, but CC's one flaw is not tracking your viewing activity so I can't remember them right now. What shorts have you been watching?

rob, Wednesday, 19 August 2020 16:59 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

Tungrus (2018, Rishi Chandna) about a Mumbai family's rooster is very amusing, especially recommended if you have or know an Indian dad

rob, Sunday, 22 November 2020 16:41 (three years ago) link

Cutaway (2014, Radwanski), which only ever shows its protagonist's hands, was also quite striking, a pleasing formal experiment

rob, Sunday, 22 November 2020 16:43 (three years ago) link

highly recommend the sky hopinka shorts they put up this month

donna rouge, Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:21 (three years ago) link

Thanks! I was definitely curious about those

rob, Sunday, 22 November 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link

You can add titles you've watched on CC to a watchlist. (For what it's worth, I track my viewing using Letterboxd.)

Shorts I've seen on CC include several early Jacques Tati shorts (also collected in the box set); some early Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd shorts; and some Shirley Clarke shorts (possibly expired from the channel). Curious but interesting: "A Day With the Boys" (1969, directed by Clu Gulager).

Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Sunday, 22 November 2020 22:20 (three years ago) link

Oh wow for some reason it hadn't even occurred to me to investigate their silent comedy shorts, thanks! I made a letterboxd account the other day after I started watching Night Nurse and realized five minutes in that I'd already seen it...in 2020, yikes. The Gulager looks intriguing too

rob, Monday, 23 November 2020 20:28 (three years ago) link


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