"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, October 4, 2013

10 Minute Tales: Series 1, Episode 9 – “Syncing” (2009)


How cool is the variety you find in British programming?  This series featured a slew of respected writers, directors, and performers in short films that were, yes, ten minutes long.  Each film has some sort of Christmas theme and little-to-no dialogue.
 
“Syncing” is an odd little thing, and I’m pretty sure it’s wonderful.  The story follows an unnamed Man through a few ordinary days, which are filled with monotony and quiet loneliness since he and his wife (partner? girlfriend? non-specified lover? The film doesn’t make it clear who she is) parted ways.  He finds that nothing sounds right anymore; the problem starts as a muffled water-in-the-ears distortion and gets stranger and wilder from there.  Only in his dreams of her can he hear with perfect clarity.
 
Actually – just bear with me – it reminds me a little bit of the film A Single Man.  The book too, I suppose, but especially the film.  You have the basic similarities, that both are about men in their 50s going through the motions of their dull, dreary lives after they’ve lost their partners.  But then, there’s the way the films convey the loneliness and depression in unspoken, cinematic ways.  In A Single Man, all the colors are muted and sepia-tinted, only letting the full brightness of the images seep in on George’s memories of Jim, as well as on the rare moments when he connects with someone in the present.  “Syncing” doesn’t have the same heavy, weary sadness hanging from it, but it too plays with the morose protagonist’s sensory perceptions.  The Man’s fractured hearing shows isolation, confusion, and all-out bewilderment, and again, the problem is soothed only in dreams and memories.
 
PC’s performance of the Man is rather impressive.  Despite the fact that none of his dialogue is intelligible, a clear picture is painted of the Man in a short amount of time.  I feel like I really get where he’s coming from and what he’s about.  Also, if a lot of the film’s tricky sound effects were put in during post-production, then his reactions to his increasingly-bizarre sense of hearing are the auditory equivalents to green-screen acting against CGI monsters; not too shabby.
 
Accent Watch
 
Not applicable – no clearly-heard dialogue.
 
Recommend?
 
In General – Why not?  It’s interesting, it’s inventive, and it takes a little less than ten minutes to watch.
 
PC-wise – I think so.  Nicely understated performance that conveys plenty with limited resources.
 
Warnings
 
Nothing much – there’s a couple snippets of the Man in the shower, but you don’t see anything.

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