The Guarantee; Marion

Two new experimental award-winning shorts by young women filmmakers share a cinematically creative approach to presenting their stories. Jesse Epstein's The Guarantee looks over the shoulder of artist Robert Castillo as he sketches comic book panels—in speeded-up time—to illustrate narrator Charles Farruggio's reminiscence about being advised by a teacher during his fourth year at ballet academy to get a nose job on his Italian schnozzola. When Charles asks the president of the school if he might be guaranteed a position in the ballet company if he agrees to plastic surgery, the elderly unsmiling Russian woman tells him that there are “no guarantees in life, my dear.” I won't reveal whether or not Charles takes one in the sniffer for the gipper, but I will admit that the ending is both upbeat and unexpected in this engaging and innovative short. Ry Russo-Young's Marion offers a deconstructive homage to Hitchcock's Psycho, presenting three simultaneous screens in which a trio of actresses playing Marion Crane engage in an afternoon dalliance followed later by that infamous shower. Shot in black-and-white, like the original, the action in the three onscreen frames differs in small but notable ways until the shower scene, during which Russo-Young completely catches the audience unawares with her bold, playful, and startling breaking of cinematic convention. Both titles are recommended for larger arts collections with extensive holdings in experimental cinema. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)