Passionless Moments

Jane Campion's "Passionless Moments" is a short film containing ten short films. More than being simply short, they are tiny. The film deals with nonsense that goes through one's mind that no one dares share when asked "what are you thinking about". It's really a wonderful concept for a short film, and the result is a funny, touching piece of work. It would be impossible to pick a favorite bit, and truthfully it would do a disservice to the film itself to try and express the actual occurrences in each mini-short. It might be worth noting that Gerard Lee was indicated in the credits as ex-director. Perhaps that's why the finished product has far more visible passion than the sketches themselves, which comes straight from the filmmaker's chair.

This is essentially a student film by director Jane Campion. It's black and white. It's a series of vignettes narrated by the same man. Non of the moments are long enough to have lasting impact. The kid has a quirky idea. Eating pork is probably the most compelling mostly because it's about something real. The others are less memorable although I probably won't forget the half-naked guy exercising. As a student film, the black and white looks good and it has some interesting ideas.

While I really admire this film, a very lovely collection of moments which describe human idiosyncracy, I must say that it is best viewed in a theater. Some films have humor that is so sophisticated, so esoteric, that it demands projection at 24 frames per second, and anything less than the silver screen does not do it justice. Take "Stranger Than Paradise". The editing technique is what makes the film so funny and wry. The full of effect of the technique just doesn't fly on a television screen; t.v. screens just aren't cinematic. Passionless Moments is wonderful, but buyer beware: only purchase the film if you have access to a theater.

Each of the segments is so simple, yet Campion displays a great deal of ingenuity for being able to not overlook such mundane aspects of human nature. As idiosyncratic as the events may be, they are still very much normal. I think this is what makes the ideas seem so amazing, is that they are the product of mere observation, of using the everyday events of the real world to make a film.

I loved the part about cleaning the jeans. That was just hilarious.

Campion and Lee had the audience roaring at their look of everyday moments we take for granted. The narrator's deadpan voice adds a nice sardonic touch. My favorites were the man singing "that 70's song about cleaning up jeans," and the little girl with the tissue box. An amusing little film, made suddenly poignant by the narrator's last voice over - approximately 'there are over one billion moments in a neighborhood, and most of them are gone before we realise it.'