User Reviews

On the surface THE LAST TEN might be a gimmick: Keep the camera locked on one spot and tell the story exclusively through sound and allow the audience to use their imagination . It is a gimmick but one that works extremely well and the audience are never overwhelmed by enigma and it's fairly clear throughout the just over ten minute story of what is happening . It also keeps the lost art of sound in cinema alive and kicking . Tarkovsky was a big fan of using sound to its fullest effect in cinema and I bet your abiding memory of IVAN'S CHILDHOOD is the drip, drip , drip of water splashing in the background . THE LAST TEN also owes a debt to Robert Bresson's 1956 film A MAN ESCAPED , especially when the protagonist tries to make a break for it and the audience are asked to join up the dots what's happening out of frame . I do have to admit I'm not a massive fan of using sound to tell a story but this unusual short film is so daring and well done it's impossible not to be caught up in the story so mission accomplished David Higgs

A familiar story – a man comes home unexpectedly early and walks in on his wife having sex with her lover resulting in a violent confrontation. In terms of story then this short film does more or less what you expect of it and yet it works very well because of the manner of delivery. Filmed in a series of long takes which give the impression of one 13 minute take, the camera hardly moves from its vantage point on the ceiling of a stairwell looking straight down. From here we can see the stairs all the way to the ground floor as well as the couple of doors on the upper levels (including that where the action occurs).

The vantage point is made the most of as the film makes the standard delivery pretty tense whether it be the unseen action in the flat, the approaching of an old lady or a last-minute figure (that, I must confess, I did not really understand). The device is a simple one and, while this view or device appears to have been the reason for the film (as opposed to he best way to tell the story) it never feels like the film is just there for the sake of it, because actually the telling works well too. With camera movement limited, the sound and lighting really hits home as to how well done they are. The lighting is set up to be a timer switch on the stairs, but even without these, the lights work to create shadow and atmosphere. The sound design is nearly as good – I never like the "rhubarb, rhubarb" thing in place of dialogue, but from the loud sex through to the footsteps in silence, the sound is a bit part of the tension.

It isn't perfect by any means; it does run about 3 or 4 minutes longer than it really can bear, and I didn't totally get the ending that it built to, but as a simple idea it is well structured and well delivered with the camera but mostly with lighting and sound.