So, the 2009 Worldwide Short Film Festival here in Toronto is officially up and running, with things starting off last night with a selection of major award winners from around the world. And if festival is to live up to the standard set right out of the gate then it's got some serious work to do. Because the very first film of the night - the very first film screened in the entire festival - was the absolutely jaw-dropping Next Floor by Denis Villeneuve.
Between this film - which won Best Short at the 2008 International Critics Week in Cannes - and this year's feature length Polytechnique - which also screened in Cannes - I think it's safe to say that Villeneuve is the new Golden Child of Canadian film. Yes, I know he's got earlier features to his credit and, yes, I know they're quite good as well but with these two projects Villeneuve has stepped up his game to an entirely new level.
Next Floor is not a film that you can 'review' per se, at least not without giving up major, major spoilers of the sort that I refuse to give up, but it revolves around a deliciously macabre and grotesque dinner party, the entire film shot with a sort of baroque attention to design and detail that would park it comfortably in the same ouvre as Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet's best work. Both incredibly formal and strikingly absurd it takes a simple premise and pushes it out to the very extremes and then a little bit farther to hilarious and very pointedly satiric effect. Bluntly put, I love this film. And while I can't say too much more about it, I can share a pair of brief trailers that will let you get a taste of Villeneuve's very odd world. Check them out below the break.
Trailer One
Trailer Two
Love it. Have here at home amongst my WSFF pile and I watched it a couple times this morning after reading this. Damn good.