Short films can be a mini class in how to direct, or how not to. In many cases, the beginnings of short films are intriguing, even gripping, only to disappoint with rushed or ambiguous endings. And Then the Bear is a must see for any student or lover of film. It is simply a work of art, even at a diminutive fourteen minutes in length.
Nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for Best Short Film, And Then the Bear is deceptively simplistic at first glance. Director Agnes Patron’s choice of animation style evokes childish chalk drawings on a blackboard, back when blackboards weren’t the means of listing all things coffee related from the local barista. But this is no cartoon for kids. The basic linear shapes tell a story in mostly white, representing innocence and red, representing many complex emotions.
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Without a word except for one painful emotive shout toward the end of the film, Patron weaves an Oedipal tale of betrayal and revenge. In under fifteen minutes, she manages to give it more emotional power than many full-length features produced by big name studios. The soundtrack accompanying the unfolding action is all the more important for the lack of dialog. It is haunting with lamenting strings and then with flutes and percussion instruments as the mood becomes charged at the end.
Whether the bear referenced in the title, And Then the Bear is a metaphor or literal creature that interacts with the main character of a nameless boy is irrelevant. The boy is in a turmoil of emotion and may be seeing the bear for real or only attempting to draw strength from what he believes a bear symbolizes. Patron shows a piercing sensitivity in understanding a child’s need for certainty and stability.
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The poignancy of his bottled-up emotions that are suddenly unleashed cuts straight to a viewer’s heart. All the more because we can imagine that the boy himself has created these rough drawings and Patron has simply brought them to life through film.
On one level, And Then the Bear is like intruding on an art therapy session with a sensitive and traumatized child. It is disturbing and wrenching to think that so much pain could be carried by one so young. On another level, the film can be seen as a surreal dreamscape of a revenge fantasy played out by an adult who is reflecting on old childhood wounds that still hurt but are buried deep inside.
And Then the Bear is a tour de force of film artistry that proves that animation can be a powerful tool in cinematic storytelling, rather than a genre that can easily be dismissed as juvenile and trite. Patron has already mastered the form of the short film and will doubtless be equally as controlled and inventive with a full-length movie. She is a director worth keeping an eye out for in the future.
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