Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts

Tuesday in New York was my day for nostalgia, and connecting with the past, which meant heading down to the southern tip of Manhattan. I took the 2 train to Wall Street, then walked down William Street to the glistening Staten Island Ferry terminal, where I bought some postcards and tried to picture what it was like before it was remodeled. The feature I miss most is the curved ramp down from the second story. It was such a magnificent way to enter the City.

I walked up along Battery Park, then up through Bowling Green and Broadway, recreating an old route. At Trinity Church, I detoured off Broadway to buy some post card stamps at 59 Wall Street, a building with particular significance to a current research project of mine.

Later I bought a pita sandwich from a street vendor and ate it while standing beside the entrance to Brown Brothers Harriman at 140 Broadway, and staring out at the empty area around Ground Zero.

After lunch, I killed some time in a Starbucks in the southeast corner of the Woolworth Building. The coffee shop was not there when I worked in the City, but if it had been, I would have spent a lot of time there. From where I could sit, I could see straight up to the 9th floor window where I used to work. I wondered if my old self from that time could see through time to see me. It was a weird sensation.

All in all, it felt like a very successful foray back into my past.

By mid afternoon, I was back up in the West Village, at the IFC Center on Sixth Avenue, where I bought a ticket to the showing of the Oscar-nominated live action short films. A bit of wind grabbed my twenty-dollar bill and sent it swirling through the ticket booth, forcing the young bearded dude to chase after it on the floor.

My cousin's roommate had spoken highly of the IFC, and it didn't disappoint me. It felt like a modern shrine of movie appreciation. The auditorium had curved rows of high-back seats, sort of like a planetarium. Before the films started, the screen displayed the levels of membership available in the IFC, going up to 1000 dollars, which allowed one access to all manner of special events. Would you get to meet Robert Osbourne? Now that would be worth it!

I had never watched a showing of the Oscar short films, before, so this was quite a treat. In order of presentation, they were:

1. Auf der Strecke (On the Line), a German film about a man who works video security at Swiss bookstore, and who has a crush on a female employee. His surreptitious fascination for her winds up leading to an interesting complication involving the Zurich subway.

2. New Boy, an Irish film about a boy from Africa during his first day of class in Ireland, interspersed with his memories of school in his home country.

3. Spielzeugland (Toyland), a German film about a mother in Nazi Germany who looks for her son, fearing that he has decided to go off to the concentration camps with their Jewish neighbors.

4. Grisen (The Pig), a Danish film about a patient in a hospital who feuds with the family of his Muslim roommate over a painting of a goofily smiling pig which he has adopted as his guardian angel.

5. Manon sur le bitume (Manon on the asphalt), a French film about a young woman who has suffered a bicycle accident and who narrates the expectations of the behavior of her friends and family as they receive the news of her possible death.

The one that stuck out in my mind the most was probably Auf der Strecke, possibly because at over a half hour it was the longest, and it was also the first one shown. It felt like a nice set-up for a longer feature, but as a complete story it felt a little open-ended, without a satisfying resolution.

Grisen was by far the most entertaining and funny, especially with the goofy pig painting, but it felt perhaps a little heavy-handed in its treatment of the intransigence of the Muslim family (but then I don't live in Denmark, so perhaps it is spot on).

New Kid was only eleven minutes, but it had a defined arc of a rich story line. It certainly made me glad that I didn't have to go to school in Ireland.

Spielzeugland was a bit choppy and confusing to follow at first, but in the end it presented a clean story that had a distinct emotional impact. Given the premium that Holocaust movies receive, this one is probably the favorite. I was almost disappointed that the other films have to compete against it, because of that.

Manon sur le bitume had a surreal floating quality, appropriate to the subject. I felt like perhaps it needed just a slight more touch of resolution, or a twist at the end to give it a little bit more emotional impact.

Don't mind me if I sound like I'm complaining. They were all excellent. My favorite was Grisen, with New Kid as my second choice. But like I said, I'd be surprised if anything but Spielzeugland wound up winning.