Cinema16: European Short Films

This two-disc collection compiles 16 mostly unknown short films from some of Europe's (and Great Britain's) best-known directors, including Ridley Scott, Lars Von Trier, Christopher Nolan, Matthieu Kassovitz, and Jan Svankmajer. Oddly, the more intriguing efforts here are actually from lesser-known filmmakers, including Argentinean-born French director Juan Solanas' “The Man Without a Head,” featuring the nattily dressed (if also decapitated) eponymous character; Austrian filmmaker Virgil Widrich's Oscar-nominated “Copy Shop,” an astonishing experimental comedy that takes cloning to absurd excesses; Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen's Oscar-winning “Election Night,” a disturbing tale of citizen duties taken a bit too seriously; and Irish playwright-turned-Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin McDonagh's “Six Shooter,” which follows a conversation between two strangers on a train ride that steadily grows more and more sinister. As with any anthology, of course, there are inevitably weaker entries (including Scott's 1965 “Boy and Bicycle” and Von Trier's 1980 “Nocturne”), but all in all, this is a mostly winning collection. DVD extras include audio commentaries on some of the films. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)