March 4, 2010: La Dama Y La Muerte (The Lady and the Reaper)
The Lady and the Reaper was buried in the middle of the block of animated Oscar-nominated short films which I saw in the theatre in the week leading up to the awards telecast. I don’t seem to have found it particularly memorable, meaning that it hasn’t remained in the front of my mind for consideration, but upon revisiting the experience while writing this review, I am reminded of just how wacky and fun this little 8-minute Spanish film is.
As noted in my earlier review of French Roast, I like how animated short films can create their own look and style, and let it play out at a natural pace without making the viewer grow tired of it. The Lady and the Reaper has a wide-angle style to it, with people being drawn as fairly simple caricatures and the camera unafraid of zooming out to show the bigger picture of what’s happening before going for an extreme close-up to capture someone’s moment of triumph or utter defeat.
In the film, an old widow falls asleep clutching a photo of her deceased husband and is evidently dying herself. The grim reaper comes to perform his duty, but this seemingly solemn and inevitable task turns into a dreamlike slapstick battle of wits between the reaper and a heroic emergency room doctor, as one struggles to end the woman’s life and the other tries to save it. They are both just doing their job, and they are both very good at their jobs, and the effect is reminiscent of the old Spy vs. Spy battles from Mad Magazine. The reaper’s frustrating commute to work and annoying pager messages are icing on the cake.
But what am I going to do? Tell you to go out and se this? It’s not in theatres. Go out and rent it? It might be attached to some other feature, but I wouldn’t know which one. I guess I’d have to say if you come across this on TV, don’t change the channel – you might find it amusing.
Where do short films fit in?
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