on December 3, 2009
Just because I write and edit for this site doesn’t mean I know all about what goes on. Like just the other day I went to our Archive page and saw that on the top right we had a column for “Top-rated of All Time”. Really!? How long has that been there?!?!
Also somewhat surprising was to see what occupied the top slot, And She Stares Longingly at What She Lost, Philip Van’s dreamy and damn depressing entry in the Exquisite Corpse filmmaking series. Philip though happens to be a fine director with a very nice visual sense who has done some other work in short film and so I figured he’d be perfect to do a filmmaker update for.
Dunny is Van’s 10 minute film about an over-weight and bullied youth, who nonetheless is resolute in his courtship of a popular girl. The film stretches our definition of the filmmaker update I suppose because he made it before “And She Stares…”—it was in fact his NYU Thesis film, and is precocious in its quality. The film pulls no punches as our protagonist attempts to give the girl a note expressing his feelings and is surprisingly invited over for dinner by her mom, which leads to more embarrassment. These types of shorts which revel in uncomfortableness are usually difficult for me to watch, but I know they resonate for others, and I can appreciate the fine craft of the piece, exemplified by the thoughtful and reserved camera movements and Van’s typically excellent production design.
Van has done some commercial work which may be where more of his attention goes in the future, but, while I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy the bleak outlook expressed in his art, I do look forward to the potential for new shorts from him in the future.