The Man Who Met Himself

Private investigator Austin Peterson gets a case involving a young man called Stephen Maker who apparently committed suicide . As Peterson uncovers more and more details he wonders if there might be more to the case than simple suicide

This is a strange film by Ben Crowe . One can see it's trying to be a type of modern film noir and one with morbid overtones but everything about it is done very badly . First of all the exposition is done entirely via voice over which leads you to think that this was originally for radio and the on screen images of Peterson wandering around bust streets and deserted council estates don't really have much to do with the story itself . Secondly the delivery of the voices are rather flat and wooden . This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it was characters talking to one another on screen but they're not so the vocal range or rather lack of it is distracting . . Thirdly there's a constant musical soundtrack being played and sometimes the sound mix drowns out the dialogue and since the dialogue is the most important part of the film this is a major problem . Sadly this means THE MAN WHO MET HIMSELF is the most disappointing short film I've seen in a long time

I covered the story of Preti Taneja, Ben Crowe and James Brown for Channel 4's Ideasfactory and I was impressed by their enthusiasm and creativity. The Man Who Met Himself is a short, impressionistic film where the dialogue is separate to the action, thus making the incident of Stephen Maker's apparent suicide a part of the audience's own investigation. While some of the voice overs could perhaps be more convincing, on the whole, the almost Traffic-esquire visuals and moody motifs of the soundtrack make this an impressive debut from the team. Selected for 2005's Short Film Palme D'Or competition at the Cannes Film Festival, The Man Who Met Himself was the only British film in competition and completely self funded.