Acide

Opening with a shot of a teddy bear by the side of the road, this film doesn't pull any punches by the threat posed by its villain - acid rain. There is a little bit of gore, but mostly we are not spared any knowledge as the scream of those ineffectively fleeing is played out over the teddy dissolving in the acid. On top of this we see an infant left in a car, and the whole thing is chilling and little disturbing. From here we cut to a family fleeing across the countryside looking for shelter, and again it seems pretty apparent here that this is not the normal disaster movie structure where our heroes are fine, and a few characters we sort of care about are sacrificed.

It continues this intensity throughout, and is a more effective short film for it - effective because of how quickly it brings home the horror of the situation in a way that a feature film may not have been able to, because it would have had to pad out in a way the short does not. Here we are thrown into the worst case scenario so we understand it, then we are introduced to characters who may be in that same scenario. The performances are convincing and the pace of the film keeps things moving over any small quibbles in the detail. A strong horror short.

A family. The menace of death. The effort of parents to hide real danger by their son. The run, the sacrifice of father, the reactions of other, expression of self conservation, the inspired details, from the song of boy to the the helmet and, not the last, familiar but splendid crafted first scenes.

A beautiful French short film for the wise manner to translate emotions, reactions and pieces so well known from works about same theme.

The cinematography, the acting, the use of light, the make up , the contryside scenes are just admirable options.

So, an acid cloude and the fight for survive.

I think the French movie industry will provide many of those short films, much cheaper than the long ones. French screenwriters are very inventive, but the problem is that for the long features, they need the financial help of the TV channels, which hesitate because this kind of films and topics are not welcome in prime time schedules. I speak of horror fims, of course. That's a pity, but we still have the short movies opportunity. But from time to time, a director emerges from this way of making movies. A talent can get born. You'll notice that this kind of production is always set in the countryside, with minimum of extras and budget to provide. This is a depressing tale though. Not in the American way.