Absurda

May. 16,2007      
Rating:
6.3
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A surrealist short film shown at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as an opening short to Wong Kar-wai’s film 'My Blueberry Nights'. It employs dream-like imagery, with stationary visuals which show a theater and the screen on which nightmarish images are projected. Part of the 'To Each His Own Cinema' anthology film.

Reviews

Colibel
2007/05/16

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

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ChanBot
2007/05/17

i must have seen a different film!!

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Ella-May O'Brien
2007/05/18

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

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Dana
2007/05/19

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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framptonhollis
2007/05/20

Lynch's more modern shorts are often hit or miss with most people, while I at least LIKE almost all of them (and, occasionally, I may even fall in total LOVE with another), and "Absurda" definitely fits this category of "modern Lynch shorts that I LIKE" (which is a very small and specific area in my mental cinematic treasury). The acting is pretty poor, but Lynch sometimes does use bad performances to his advantage in order to add to the overall surrealism of the piece, and sometimes this works totally in his favor (some of the acting in "Twin Peaks: The Return: The Third Season: A Limited Event Series" is noticeably "off" and it totally adds to the atmosphere in the show), but, here, it doesn't really do that. Otherwise, the visuals are extremely unique and oddly appealing, if disturbing and unsettling. It's very Lynchian and works as another one of his attempts to capture the look and feel of an actual dream or nightmare on screen. I must say, "Absurda" does oddly resemble a dream in the closest of ways. It has the same logic, flow, look, and sound of many dreams I can remember having, even if it is not exactly a perfect replica of these dreams just yet.

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Horst in Translation ([email protected])
2007/05/21

"Absurda" is an American short film from 2007, so this one has its 10th anniversary this year. It runs for slightly over two minutes only and shows us what happens when the movie action at a local theater becomes a little bit too real for the only people watching it. Talk about the characters making a connection with what they see on screen. Generally, the plot idea isn't too bad for a 150 second film, but that's pretty much it. The dancing reference at the very end is a bit on the pretentious side. This is a film that is an example of being famous because it was made by David Lynch, but I doubt this is a film that actually could have made him famous or at least increased his popularity. It's probably worth checking out for the very biggest fans of the super famous filmmaker, who focused on short film a lot in the last 15-20 years, but everybody else can skip it. I personally give this little horror mystery movie a thumbs-down.

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Michael_Elliott
2007/05/22

Absurda (2007) *** (out of 4)This two minute film was directed by the one and only David Lynch and was originally shown at the Cannes Film Festival. A group of people are sitting in a theater watching a movie when one realizes that the woman on the screen is her. She talks about how what she's watching is a nightmare she's been having and it appears to be coming real. ABSURDA isn't a masterpiece or anything close to that but it's a fairly interesting film that might actually work well as a feature. I thought this short at least managed to have that certain atmosphere that only Lynch can create and I think the nightmare vision is nicely put onto the screen. The movie also manages to tell its story is a rather neat way and I liked how we never actually see the people in the theater and can just go by what they're saying. Lynch fans should enjoy this one.

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