Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet / The Cello Details

Fabulous compilation of seven short films.

The film comprises seven short films by seven different directors separated by interludes of flowing water and a trumpet theme, the films being alternatively shot in colour and black and white.

With the exception of Werner Herzog’s short about the destruction of a Brazilian ethnic culture the films capture a snapshot in time of the characters lives, we learn nothing about them and the themes are universal.

The finest short is “Lifeline” directed by Victor Erice about the birth of a baby in 1940s Spain set during a dreamy lazy summer afternoon, this is superb cinema.

I also loved “Int. Trailer Night” depicting a ten minute rest for a film star in her trailer, complete with interruptions and phone call from her boy friend, a beautifully done vignette. Also the first film “Dogs have no Hell” directed by Aki Kaurismäki about a middle aged man and woman setting off from Moscow to Siberia to start a new married life, the characters are not attractive to look at and one wonders what are their real feelings or is it an act of desperation.

I would not have believed this format could work, but it does and I am placing a companion film “Ten Minutes Older – Cello” on my rental list.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Mediations on time: the cello

Eight more ten-minute pieces about 'time' following on from 'The trumpet' (one other segment, by Abbas Kiarostami, was apparently rejected for being too minimalist - it features nothing but a sleeping shepherd who wakes up just seconds before the end), and another mixed bag. Best, by far, is Bertolucci's little parable about the circle of life, and interestingly both Denis and Schlöndorff use the oppportunity to talk, at least in part, about race, too. Denis', although not particularly entertaining, is a key primer to anyone looking to understand her whole body of work (she herself is an outsider, having been born in Africa). Godard and Menzel, meanwhile, meditate on cinema's ability to capture passing time, the former from a typically Olympian standpoint, the latter sentimentally (and it won't mean much to an audience who aren't aware of who Rudolf Hrusinsky is). Radford's little fable is widely mocked, but I thought it nicely judged, and much better than Figgis, playing his split-screen tricks again, this time to consider memory, and Szabo, trying a little improvisation to no discernable purpose.