Belmonde lives in 1990's London as a iconic, cool French man modelled on the new wave cinema of the 1960s. Unfortunately he is actually English and middle class a fact that his family won't let him forget no matter how hard he tries.
At the start of this short I thought it was yet another pretentious French short harking back to the 60's in style and character. However after a few minutes we find that the ill tempered complex Frenchman Belmonde is really an English boy, pretending to be French. At this point the short becomes more enjoyable, rather than being pretentious it is actually making fun of those films and the people who try to be like them. This actually makes it very funny and I felt free to laugh at this art without destroying it in my mind.
The `story' doesn't really go anywhere but rather allows a series of scenes where Belmonde is made fun of as he tries to be like his heroes.
It's clever and funny and manages to hold the interest easily for the brief running time. With no story to speak of, it's never going to brilliant, but where many shorts fall into the trap of being artsy and pretentious this side steps this trap by poking fun at it's main character without actually making fun of the art itself (in this case French new wave).
At the start of this short I thought it was yet another pretentious French short harking back to the 60's in style and character. However after a few minutes we find that the ill tempered complex Frenchman Belmonde is really an English boy, pretending to be French. At this point the short becomes more enjoyable, rather than being pretentious it is actually making fun of those films and the people who try to be like them. This actually makes it very funny and I felt free to laugh at this art without destroying it in my mind.
The `story' doesn't really go anywhere but rather allows a series of scenes where Belmonde is made fun of as he tries to be like his heroes.
It's clever and funny and manages to hold the interest easily for the brief running time. With no story to speak of, it's never going to brilliant, but where many shorts fall into the trap of being artsy and pretentious this side steps this trap by poking fun at it's main character without actually making fun of the art itself (in this case French new wave).