Dave Lojek & Steffi Sixdorf / Germany / 5 minutes
Synopsis
Annemarie and Hanspeter are two loony neighbours who could become enamoured. How and when will he take the plunge and approach her?
Comedy is not an easy art— and on this matter, we, LCF members, are picky. However, « Proverbial luck » charmed us straight away.
This short film, entirely narrated with a voice-over, presents the personalities and the burgeoning love-story of two characters, at the rate of at least one idiomatic expression per sentence. As we go along, each one of them gets illustrated on screen… in its literal meaning! Then appears a game for the non-German-speaking viewers who, besides enjoying this recreational performance at face value (visual jokes) and for its real sense (the concrete story), imagine what it would’ve looked like with the matching turns of phrase in their own language.
The principle is childish but adorable and very well executed. Certain subtler details differentiate the whole thing from a simple farce (the mustard tube’s reappearance for example). Steffi Sixdorf and Peter Lutz’s playful writing, accompanied by an appropriate bouncy music, reels off idioms until the end credits’ last second.
In the middle of this avalanche of comico-poetic effects, the two actors Magdalena Plöchl et Benedikt Vyplel manage to have a great screen presence and be magnificent from start to finish, and this without a single word. Hats off to them.
Conclusion
A little candy you should savour in case of melancholy, to dream and take comfort in the rich power of language and child’s games.
S.I.
« Proverbial luck » joins official selection for the Little Croco Festival’s first edition, nominated in the Comedy category.
Comments