Impressive selection that this 2023 vintage of Swiss short films presented at NIFFF Hey! If of course preferences emerge here and there, none really surprises and all – each in its own genre – offers a stunning visual quality. Back to this excellent vintage...
Contents
Epidermal
If it contains within it many references more or less obvious – Vincent has no scales by Thomas Salvador, Ducourneau and of course Cronenberg – Epidermal offers its spectator a sensory journey following the daily (and jealousy) of a group of synchronized swimmers. If the magnificent photograph gives body to the various horrific paintings (the transformation, obviously, but also more banally the evisceration of the fish, the epidermal sensations, etc.), the short is sometimes lost in the will to interlock several horrific images (such as the sequence of the rules, obviously lurking on the side of the Carrie, but which brings nothing to the end to narration).
Ocean Wannaz, 2022
Third Wheel
A very short comic format, bathed in scenery and a 100% Japanese folklore, mixed with a ghost story. That's the promise of Third Wheel On which we will no longer spread so much this comedy WTF wins to be discovered without a priori.
Kevin Haefelin, 2023
Adrift
Very nice surrealist paintings alternating pure horrific imagery (cf. the old ones in the corridor with their collars) and poetic projections (the rain in the hospital room). By letting oneself be carried by its enchanting atmosphere, this short is tasted like an acidic candy.
Marion Reymond, 2023
Pipes
A small plumber bear must come to repair the boiler pipe of a gay box... And they're not the usual tools he'll need most. In short, you will understand, this very short format in black and white 2D animation is matched by a good (and enjoyable) dose of what the fuck. Fools guaranteed!
Jessica Meier, Sujanth Ravichandran, Kilian Feusi, 2022
Camera obscuraa
Perhaps the most accomplished of this beautiful selection, Camera obscuraa promises a time trip 100% meta even within a shooting. Grisillaments, strange blue box and night photography, this short assures us that the lynchian relief (a much more suitable adjective here than when it is used to describe the bad Perpetrator Also selected at the NIFFF) is on!
Como Chatelain, 2022
Der Molchkongress
Swiss-German dystopia on a world conquered by giant tritons. Highlighted by a superb photograph, Der Molchkongress stir the vase of ecology to offer us this strange metaphorical comedy. Special mention to rubber puppets manipulated by technicians that the camera does not try at all to hide... Drolatic object and deeper than it looks.
Immanuel Esser, Matthias Sahli, 2022
Kill your darlings
When the poor farmer sees her closets empty, the image of Eden from her farm will quickly turn to the butcher shop... Especially for the three little pigs lying in the mud of his farm. A stop-motion that amuses at the ruptures of your comic/horrific by wiping with brilliance the textures (paste to model, fabrics and... a lot of bidoche)!
Thirza Ingold, 2023
Too bad I missed them, it looked like it was too bad.