8/10
a gem of a short film
6 March 2018
The later-much-more-recognizable-and-flat-out-acclaimed female filmmaker Jane Campion started her career making semi-obscure-but-still-notable short films, and this is one of the earliest and likely best examples of said films. 'Passionless Moments' is a film that straightforwardly depicts a few minor and mostly inconsequential awkward occurrences that are often entirely within the characters' minds. The film is quirky and queer, but there is something uniquely "bland" about the style, which isn't to say the film isn't visually interesting (there's one brilliant little moment in which Campion makes something as minor as lint blowing above a man's head seem like some sort of mystical, mythical moment of magic; it's super simple and brief but is hands down by far my favorite part of the (short) film), but that just the overall manner in which everything is handled is very quiet and quaint. There is virtually no soundtrack, not a single line of actual dialogue, and the narrator is nearly monotone in his narration. The film is often humorous, but ends with a super somber sort of feeling. A unique and intelligent arthouse film.
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