Last week I was in Atlanta for a playwrighting symposium hosted by Art Within. One new development this year is that the scope of the thing has expanded to include screenwriters, and it was plenty exciting. We did a midnight reading of a way-over-the-top hilarious screenplay-in-progress by Jim Krueger (forgive my comic book ignorance, but I guess he's pretty well known in those circles? did work at DC? in any case, a GREAT guy), watched and discussed people's "Best Endings", heard readings of six plays in development through the Art Within dramaturgical process (including a screenplay about sex and relationships that I'm gonna bet finds its way to big screens before very long at all!), and (the point of this thread)...

Viewed MOST (which is Czech for "The Bridge"), a half-hour film brought by one of our new participants Elkin Garabedian, whose husband Bobby directed. Stunning. Sophisticated in its craft, extraordinary emotional impact, and deeply connected to the gospel. Nominated for a Best Short Film (Live Action) Academy Award this spring, and even my Oscar-sceptical soul could amen that particular accolade.

Lensed in Czech Republic, it's a father-son story which ultimately presents a moral/relational conundrum that reminds me of DEKALOG. The root of the story is a story you've undoubtedly heard in a sermon illustration, one of those supposedly true "Christian urban myths" that probably aren't true but are definitely True. But the film makers go way beyond that mythic kernel, elaborating a multi-layered and evocative story that visits tragedy, suggests hope, communicates both agony and grace without ever descending to didacticism. For my money, an absolute exemplar of what Christians can accomplish with film. Real art, real life, real transcendence.

Apparently it will become available on DVD next spring. When it does, I'll be ringing the bell and singing its praises again.

Ron, I'm jealous that you saw this. I still haven't seen it, but heard about it from a friend.

Everything I know I added to this Oscars thread:

: ...and is "a parable of God sacrificing his only Son"...

Assuming this is the urban legend that I think it is, I hope it stays pretty true to the original, as my in-progress full-length play uses...um...well, I don't want to give a synopsis, and particularly not the ending, but let's just say that while the events involved in my play are completely different than the legend's, there are some major thematic simularities.

So, in short, I am really, really hoping that "The Bridge" does not take off running from the story in the same direction I have.

Dale

: So you're a playwright as well as a film maker?

Yes.

: Is this your first full-length script?

Yes. We will not mention my, um, uh, very, very odd non-full length script from last year, which...um, uh, yeah. My other short plays are not online -- unfortunately, as they are better and normaller.

: And even the ones who do who also happen to see your play aren't
: likely to find it derivative because of thematic similarities. (Unless
: yours also happens to involve a train?...)

No. But (working title) In His Hands (you can guess the double-entendre, and you'd be partially right) does involve a few offstage planes.

And, yes, yes, yes, of course you're right. Even though the u.l. was the inspiration for my play, my work is far enough removed from the original that I'm sure there's no way "Most" is taking the same lessons from the story I am -- which are not the intended lessons, by the by -- and even it does, who in the heck is ever going to make the correlation? But I worry that the work I've put into it will be usurped by someone taking the same idea I have and doing it better.

Dale

Just found out this film is screening at a local church. Details follow for anyone in the D.C. area:

Karate Kid II's "Bad Boy" Billy Zabka,

With a Free Private Screening of his

2003 Academy Award Nominated movie,

"MOST."

8PM, July 9, 2005, Community Room C

--Ron: Was it ever released on DVD?

It is well worth seeing.

I have it on DVD--a generous gift from another fan of the film, Rik Schwartzwelder (who made The Least of These)--and it's surprising what a wide range of emotions the filmmaker explores through the course of the story.

Speaking of which, I watched Goodbye Lenin the other day and noticed that it, too, uses the same tune from Amelie that Most uses. Seems to be a popular European choice.

FWIW, I blogged this film when I saw it three months ago, and thought it was okay, though my enjoyment was a bit diminished when I realized, halfway through, that it was basically just a dramatization of a sermon illustration I'd heard some years before. And the ending seemed a little too upbeat for me, for whatever that's worth.

I recently revisited AMELIE, and noticed it's not just one tune that MOST cribbed from AMELIE, it's every blinking bit of music! I really do think they just took the AMELIE soundtrack CD and mixed in their favourites. (That's what a micro-budget will do!) The amazing thing is how well it works.

The version you saw me show at Granville Chapel featured a soundtrack that was only ever meant to be provisional, as I understand it. The new version includes a soundtrack by the guy who did THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. (So go ahead, say it - now MOST will sound like THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST instead of AMELIE...)

I'm goint to review the new version for CT Movies. When I do, I'll let you know how the soundtracks compare.

Ron

My review at Christianity Today Movies;

Most of us never get the chance to see some of the most compelling movies around, simply because they fall into that oft-overlooked category of "short films." You can tell a lot of story in 20 or 40 minutes, but unless you pad it out to an hour and a half or two, nobody's going to show your movie. Or rent it at the video store. Or even hear about it.

Often, that's a pity. In the case of Most, it's a terrible loss. People who have seen this film count it among the best and most powerful movies they have ever seen: some say it's been life-changing. An audience favorite when it debuted at the prestigious Sundance Festival, it went on to win top honors at the Heartland Film Festival, Maui, Palm Springs and other international competitions before receiving an Oscar nomination as Best Live Action Short Film in 2003.

"Most" is Czech for "The Bridge," and this story revolves around a man who operates a railway drawbridge somewhere in Eastern Europe. One of the glories of this small masterpiece is the acting: what a privilege to see such astonishingly accomplished actors, their faces completely unrecognizable to a North American audience. None of the distractions of celebrity to compete with the reality of the world that opens up onscreen.

And what a tangible, engrossing, closely observed world it is. The seed of this screenplay may be something of a Christian "urban legend," familiar from sermons, tracts and fireside talks at summer camp, but the film's exquisite attention to sensual detail and deeper character development makes it so much more. The events at the core of this story may have happened once—or may not have. But over the years its telling and retelling have stripped away the particularities and reduced it to its "message." But here the filmmakers fill out the narrative with rich detail, not only of life in a European city viewed through the eyes of a small boy, but also by extending the stories of the central characters beyond the bounds of the didactic, boiled-down allegory. Elements of this story resonate with larger stories at the heart of the Christian faith, but the filmmakers have introduced so much human detail back into the tale that it confounds the sort of one-to-one symbolic interpretation the "parable version" invites.

To reveal much at all of a story this concise and beautifully constructed would be to rob the viewer of some of the film's greatest power. It moves from an evocative, almost dreamlike opening to a stunning climax with tremendous artistry, then finds a perfectly conceived denouement that not only shifts the story away from a flatly allegorical interpretation but provides even greater emotional resonance for the events that have gone before.

The eastern European tone and setting combined with the moral/relational conundrum at the heart of the story are reminiscent of Kieslowski, particularly the short films in his acclaimed Decalogue project, though there's an unabashed soulfulness here (however understated) that contrasts with the muted emotions of the Polish director's work, and probably renders Most just that much more accessible to a North American audience. It's remarkable to learn that the film originates with a pair of young Los Angeles filmmakers, Bobby Garabedian and William Zabka (though those last names may help explain something of the film's European flavor). It's more remarkable—at least for people more cynical about "Christian filmmaking"—that the film's creators are both committed Christians. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Oh yes.

The film premiered with a score mostly borrowed from the soundtrack of Amelie (!), but the DVD release features an all new score by John Debney, whose quiet music for this film is as evocative as his heart-pounding Passion of The Christ score was thunderous and overwhelming.

Garabedian and Zabka have taken a well-worn story that's probably not true but is definitely True, and elaborated that mythic kernel into a multi-layered and evocative story that visits tragedy and suggests transcendence without ever descending to didacticism. For my money, an absolute exemplar of what a short film can be, and of what Christians can accomplish with film: real art, real life, real hope.

*

Official website where you can buy yourself a copy!