Profused with South American melancholia, the setup for this short film is a club dedicated to 'classical' film, with radio lectures on Eisenstein and live, in-theater translations (into Spanish), of classics, Von Stroheim's 'Greed,' for example. With the demise of the club, after some 20 years, the somber yet not unattractive manager must face his own options. And, as he steps out, he creates his own film. The irony in the picture is expressed in an amazing 'spontaneous' lecture the manager gives to a classroom of law students, opportunistically posing as their substitute professor. He touches on the ubiquity of illusion and 'lying' in life-- 'reality' vrs. metaphor, or in this case, film. The character of the manager is no Astaire when he dances, and there's no Minnelli behind the camera, but we get the picture, and when he connects with the girl, he goes to the movies. A reference in the credits to Mark Twain as the inspiration for the work; the minimalist writing and direction stay focused, the editing is good and the film stays with you. Worth seeing.
