Gisele Kerozene (1989)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Jan Kounen

Writer:

Carlo De Boutiny (writer)

Genre:

Short | Action | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

In a modernistic city, three odd fellows seem to worship a small bird-like statue when a fourth bizarre person steals it...

Plot Keywords:

Chase | Flying Broom | City | Wheelchair

Cast

Abel Abouliaten	...	Rita Matchless
Pascal Banos	...	Sorcière et Superman
Bob Fletchard	...	Brenda Stuka
Jan Kounen	...	Le Paralytique
Jean-Baptise Sastre	...	Gisèle Kérozène
Graziella Tymen	...	L'infirmière

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dobermann (1997)

Even in a short film I find Kounen's hyper direction, grotesque and bloody excess to be soulless and a little repugnant

In the middle of a clean and practically deserted modern city, three witch-like fellows are worshiping a strange sort of statue on a plinth. They are disturbed when a fourth witch steals the statue and takes off down the street on his broomstick. The others give chase but it will be a difficult chase that leaves only one winner in a bloody urban battle.

Despite the fact that the words 'from the director of Dobermann' are likely to send me running from any cinema or television screen that they come from but I thought that I would be fair and try to give this short film a chance nonetheless. From the very first scene until the final shot this was as horrible as Dobermann was and had all the flaws that he displayed in his features (that I've seen). Usually short films can cope with being all style and I suppose that if this is your first time viewing one of his films that you might be taken in my the unexpected pace of this film. However I have seen him before and am not won over by this nonsense.

The film has no plot but what it has in its place is horrid, repugnant style that is deliberately grotesque and overblown. It is bloody for the sake of being bloody; it twists the faces of the characters for the sake of being gross and it is simply unfunny and unpleasant to watch. I will acknowledge that the stop-motion technique is clever but only technically – and even then it still looks as rough as a bag of spanners compared to what even low-budget films can do with it.

Overall this may appeal to some and if it appeals to you then by all means check out the rest of Kounen's work. But for me he tries to totally rely on style, violence and excess to make his films work but he cannot do it – his style is not stylish and the sheer grotesque nature of his films offer nothing that appeal to me – and you know what? I'm very glad that a short film like this does nothing for me, it reassures me that, although I'm not very intelligent, at least I'm not as dumb as Kounen thinks I am.