Tunnel of Love

This short was in part four of the "Short Cinema Journal"--a film I rented from Netflix but which appears to have originally been a monthly film series for people who like mediocre modern short films AND love to have the DVD chock full of commercials. I have so far tried two of the Journal's DVDs and felt enraged at the horrible way that a viewer needs to navigate the disk in order to see the films. Talk about an over-produced and overly complicated way of doing this! While I have and will continue to see as many shorts as I can, I really doubt if I'll bother with the Journals because of these factors.

TUNNEL OF LOVE is a film that looked great but didn't exactly deliver. The film was almost completely made in lovely black and white and this actually was a big plus, as the film really was enhanced by this. In particular, the film makers chose some people with tons of character in their faces and the lighting and camera work really made the most of this. While not as bizarre as many of the characters that you'd find in a Fellini film, it was a great example of casting and film making.

However, despite this and a nice 50s look, the film had two problems. While the motorcycle and most of the cars had a 50s and early 60s look, some of them were modern and this just didn't fit. But, much more importantly, was that although the film work was top-notch, the story itself just seemed shallow and unsatisfying at the end. An example of great style with little substance.