Hit or Miss: Nuit Blanche

Title: Nuit Blanche
Director: Arev Manoukian
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2010/02/05/nuit-blanche/
Hit or Miss: Hit

It was honestly a little difficult for me to find the right words to review "Nuit Blance" as it somewhat left me speechless. With excellent direction, writing, cinematography, and music, this film is just a phenomenal example of what shorts should strive to be and is probably my very favorite one to review to date.

The story is simple: what it feels like to feel love at first sight. But the feelings associated with this moment are not quite so simple as we see the two characters lives changed in one moment.

What makes this film work wonderfully are is the fact that it is so emotionally powerful. They take the idea of love at first sight and plunge it into hyperdrive by creating these intense feelings. Love is not just love, a look is not just a look, attraction takes a much more powerful feel. Water plunges up in slow motion, a wine glass shatters to the table in a moment of forgetting all cares and being only able to focus on her one true love. The man drops his suitcase and the whole entire world and focus to him becomes her. He steps in front of a car and it even shatters around him as she shatters through glass. These dramatic events all happening around them evoke a lot of emotion from the viewer as they feel love as a much more dramatic and powerful thing when it's presented in such an intense light. This really makes you feel love on a very powerful level.

The film itself is shot beautiful with fantastic lighting, costuming, and set decorating, they are really able to give you this feel of the 1940's/50's film noir scene. It works absolutely perfectly. The music in this film also helps enhance the intense drama and romance felt by the actors. By using appropriate music to enhance the scene, you could really feel what they felt without having to have any unnecessary dialogue. When you're able to provide and evoke a lot of emotion without the use of dialogue, you know you have done something great with your film. It's strongest point perhaps, in addition to music, was really the cinematography. This short had breathtaking imagery and the high speed camerawork was incredible. The overall look of this film, the lighting, the shots, the color, are absolutely beautiful to watch.  I also really enjoying seeing the classic "Fin" at the end of the film paying homage to classic French new wave cinema.

This short will be both a treat for the eyes and the heart. A definite "Hit"