Stanley (2000) User Reviews

Cabbage love

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 10 April 2005]

In this 7 minute multiple award-winning short from the UK, Stanley, a weather-worn old man has only the cabbage growing in his backyard to give him joy. His wife growing jealous of the lack of attention, fixes to make some cabbage stew. Suzie Templeton shows promise, and given that this is basically just a student film, I'm liable to overlook the short's flaws. And in all honesty, the good things of the film do out way the bad. Let me take the remaining time alloted to rail against the 10-line minimum IMDb has dictated and say it shouldn't apply to shorts less then 10 or even 15 minutes long.

My Short Grade: B

A man and his giant cabbage

[Rectangular_businessman · 8/10 · 14 November 2023]

The first short by Suzie Templeton, which probably might be her weirdest work, almost venturing into a surrealist territory.

In contrast with the bleak naturalism from Dog, or her adaptation of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (Where the initial realism is juxtaposed with whimsical elements akin to a fairy-tale and slapstick cartoons), here the realism opens to room for strangeness, with a bizarre dream sequence with Freudian undertones and a totally unexpected ending accompanied by an out of place happy soundtrack giving it a dark irony touch.

The scene with the chicken felt somewhat reminiscent to the dinner sequence from Eraserhead. I wonder if it was a deliberate homage or just a mere coincidence.

Definately worth-watching.

a marriage story

[Kirpianuscus · 30 October 2023]

The story of Stanley and his wife reminds, in precise - realistic manner, the mechanism of many marriages of venerable persons, refuged, after decades, in the circle of their hobbies, animated by forms of jealousy or only desiring the peace after presumed many conflics.

The art of Suzie Templar is admirable, again.

Beautiful portrait of each character, a provocative dream about cabbage as a kind of mistress and cold final of story .

Again, loneliness and a form of soul poverty as basic ingredients of a very short animation, the virtues of clay being, again, smart used.

And, no doubts, the atmosphere is the one of precious gifts.