Mécontentement

loved it loved it loved it loved it... fanTASTIC film. i dont know how you did some of that, and i really wish i could myself... i loved the b&w and the vfx were tasteful, so real. -- the language was beautiful and during the credits, the snappy war jolts were superb! 5 stars on a round! fantastic work!!
 
it was subtle and felt like you were purposefully holding back what the character was seeing... and paid off at the end with great fx.
 
I am totally in love with this one!
Maybe its the French (went to a greek-french school...dont ask why)...maybe the theme (huge fan of the era)...maybe the poetry in all this.....maybe the subtle score in the end.....but most of all WHAT YOU DID WITH THAT VFX IN THE END!! I WAS HOLDING MY BREATH!!

I know most people will say that this is not a horror movie....and it probably isnt so sadly I wouldnt put the prizes in your direction, however I am voting no matter what, horror or not and you get very high marks in my ratings.

One thing though, try the subtitles once more, and keep them a bit long by putting 2 lines. At the beginning they went by pretty fast and couldnt read them all.

Nice sound design and angles, and frames and the guy was perfect...loved the foley...tank passing by...

PS. before getting shot he holds the rifle in the most NOT LIKE THAT way...is this because he didnt know how to (your actor) or just to portray the fact that all his life he was 'away' from all this...keeping himself 'clean'....?
 
Gorgeous filming. Simply gorgeous.

Not horror though. Screenplay gets low marks because it doesn't fit the genre, not because it's bad, but because you didn't write something to fit the contest.

But it's a beautiful piece of work. Just not right for the contest.
 
Matt Sconce's Review of Mecontentement
SPOLIERS POSSIBLE!

Script
It was a pretty good story. A guy who feels guilty he did not do more to stop the germans, and decides to fight. I agree that this was not a horror movie. More of a Drama tragedy, or period war movie.
Acting
Your actor did a great job!!!
Cinematography
This is beautifully shot!
Editing
I think all your editing worked bery well and helped the story flow effortlessly along.
Overall Impressions
Interesting movie. You definitely captured a beautiful tragic story.
 
Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.
Nice poster you guys have up. I hadn't seen the thread until I watched the movie so it's new to me. And so are you! So welcome, even if you've been around a while.

Script - This wasn't horror to me. I guess you can list horror as a lot of things but I can't see anything that stands out to me as "horror". Maybe "horrors" of war. But, in reviewing the script for what it was, outside of this contest, it's a short poetic narrative and wasn't bad at all. The V.O was rather prose, which worked with the visuals.

Direction - Over-all nice frame-ups. Even the way you tackled subtleties was okay with me. The end where he gets filled with bullets worked from afar. I'm not a fan of "old war flicks" but whatever snippets I've seen and can be remembered, this fits.

Acting - Silent acting. Facial expressions are to be relied on but in a short like this you can't really go on much more than that.

Cine/Lighting - Your choice for black and white was revealed as it played on. The lighting still persisted through and added variations of blacks to whites, really rich values. Nice.

Editing - I liked the stacatto beats you added in at certain points. First one that came to mind was the one, two, three when the guy stepped into the woods for the first time. I also like the way you edited through your plant-growth scene, and the credits.

Sound - I didn't know what the guy was saying, but the V.O sounded great. So did the sound effects. A lot of weight to things, bass even. Scored well, dramatic, thoughtful tones.

Special Effects - I liked the plant growth and the tanks. You guys should hook up with some other DVXusers in that area.


Overall consensus - Not a horror-fest short, to me. But as anything else it's a good showcase of work. I liked watching it through.Thanks for showing it.
 
I completely agree with all comments. I had a long hard time debating to which
elements might be borrowed from the horror genre and woven them loosely
into what I, in my own mind, is a terrorfying thought. Being useless, in denial,
day dreamer, and becoming rooted in such a way that provides no progression
in life. To me the horror of becoming a tree is more than I need as a justification
for the contest but, that being said, it's on the very fringe. The imagery I
deemed creepy but, not disturbing. This short slowly evolved into something
I was not expecting. I liked the age old tradition/mythology of one being
metamorphosed into a tree and how it might feel during that transformation.
Needless to say the story happilly developed into a different genre
inheriting loose elements of horror from it's previous incarnation.

Thanks for viewing everyone! Oh god I gotta leave work and go home!
Slowly getting through my reviews...

Oh and thanks Kholi. I've been sorta in and around the DIY section for the last
few months. Crazy 35mm adapts are addicting!
 
I liked this film on a lot of levels. It was deceivingly simple, a perfect minimalist approach. The sound design on this one was its best aspect, it just made the film work.

I normally don't like all available light exterior films, but this one pulled it off by selecting great locations and shooting at the right time of day.

The final effect was good, but it was already a solid film up to that point.

Excellent and worth watching a number of times.
 
This was an interesting concept, however, the black and white was a little "washed out" for lack of a better term. I would love to see this with a lot more contrast. In fact, I bumped up the contrast on my viewer and voila, that did wonders for my enjoyment of the pictures. Not sure how you'll feel about the manipulation but I've got to have that nice contrast on B&W.

I hope that doesn't sound like Bruce Dickinson asking for more cowbell...:)
 
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I think my monitor is hopped up on contrast because I got that contrast from the get-go. THis might be a problem for viewing other fest entries. I should look at these on my laptop to see what's what.
 
Kholi said:
I think my monitor is hopped up on contrast because I got that contrast from the get-go. THis might be a problem for viewing other fest entries. I should look at these on my laptop to see what's what.
Click to expand...
Probably couldn't hurt. I'm on a Mac and I think they show a bit darker so I have to take that into consideration and occasionally make adjustments.
 
I definitely know some shots had a little more contrast than others and that it aslo
varied from monitor to monitor. In the end I settled for the middle ground between
the 3-5 seperate monitors I looked at. Blaine, I do see your point about having nice contrast though!

Thanks!
 
I Like these kinds of films. I wish there were more
of this kind of thing. Liked the story and the subtitles, music,
vo and film look, all fit together. The acting was
totally believable. Was not expecting the ending.
Very spooky-eerie and very well done.
 
The ending was something else. Really nice vibe you had there. I actually held my breath when i saw that thing rise out of his chest.

It's good to see some entries that do not conform to the typical horror genre. For me it was a bit too much dialogue after a while, I'd rather the VO to be a counterpoint to the visuals rather than a copy of what we're seeing onscreen - however that made the ending probably stand out more....

also nice having the start as the end, it gives it a sense of completion.

well done, very interesting piece.
 
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