Jay Jay Jegathesan / Australia / 9 minutes
Synopsis
On an ordinary night in a park, Mark Theo Carter found himself confronting the line diving heroism and a plunge into the abyss. He is now behind bars. Killer… or saint?
The power of « The Saint » is the immediate and lasting feeling of unease it brings to the audience with almost nothing. If the « filmed-with-a-smartphone » sensation given by the intro shot’s movement bothers a little, the rest turns out to be much more sober and makes us forget this aspect. Atmosphere is cold and heavy, highlighted by an ingenious image treatment: a nice black & white photography in which only red colour stands out.
The director gives a remarkable performance (playing himself the character): the long monologue structuring the film is delivered within a 9-minute sequence-shot during which we won’t feel any second of boredom. Possessed, Jay Jay Jegathesan brilliantly keeps us in suspense, serving an acerbic text that switches between cynicism, horror and more philosophical questions. Some rare lines may seem over the top (excessive acting or rough-and-ready writing? we could not make up our minds) but the whole of it remains strong and admirable.
Worth noting that the directing takes the liberty of emphasising several elements of the story with a few visual effects (ephemeral drawings’ interventions— red of course). It would have been easy to overdo them, but here they are parsimoniously used. A very good additional point.
The film’s main imperfection lies in sound take, especially in the first part where the voice treatment sometimes gives a « muffled sound » or « low-quality file » feeling. It disappears as we go along. The soundtrack pretties up the whole thing, and the ending’s music artfully closes the film on a good impression.
Conclusion
A clever short-film that manages to take the utmost out of its initial proposition and means. In the future we wouldn’t mind discovering other films from this director!
S.I.
« The Saint » joins official selection for the Little Croco Festival’s first edition, nominated in the Horror category.
Trailer:
Comments