A Collection of 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films

As I mentioned in my review of A Collection of 2005 Academy Award Nominated Short Films (VL-11/06), every year at our Oscar party we continue to cross off the short film categories (animated and live action) from the ballots before we hand them out, because no one has ever seen any of the nominees. A Collection of 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films compiles eight of the 10 films in competition. The animated films—a combination of puppetry, stop-motion animation, and CGI work—include the winner “Peter & the Wolf,” a narration-less British-Polish co-production from filmmakers Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman based on Prokofiev's classic composition. The other animated nominees here are “Madame Tutli-Putli” (VL-5/07), a tale about a spinster-ish woman caught up in a surreal metaphysical adventure aboard a train, and “Even Pigeons Go to Heaven,” a lightly amusing story in which an old man tries to outwit death (and the clergy). Unfortunately, the animated nominees “I Met the Walrus” and “My Love” are not included here. On the live-action side, there's no real standout. The winner, Philippe Pollet-Villard's “The Mozart of Pickpockets,” is kind of a one-note two-men-and-a-kid story of adults being upstaged by a child. The other live action entries include “At Night,” an unexceptional Christmas-set story about three women in a cancer ward; “The Substitute,” an over-the-top comic short; “Tanghi Argentini,” a reasonably charming piece about an Internet-arranged tango assignation; and “The Tonto Woman,” an overly long (as are many of the “shorts” here) adaptation of an Elmore Leonard story. As with the 2005 collection, given the fact that few will ever have the chance to see these honored shorts (and this disc is worth the price for “Peter & the Wolf” alone), this is definitely recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)