Bucovina: Card Game (Short)
The title card says it all at the beginning:
“Beware the woman who keeps a company with liars and thieves.”
The short film “Bucovina: Card Game”- seen by me on YouTube- is less a narrative and more a four-minute exercise in style. The film’s co-writer/co-director Zachary Block emailed me a couple of weeks ago, asking for a review.
But how do you review a four minute film? Well, hopefully very quickly.
The setup is simple- four buccaneers are playing cards. A sexy baroness is serving them drinks.
How that scenario plays out I’ll let you see for yourself. What you need to know is whether that quick setups works or not. It does. Using split screens, slow motion (well, I might add), and the song “Bucovina” by Shantel, Block and his co-writer/director Sean Trimpe have made something short, sweet, and fun to watch. As a short film, it accomplishes the basics- sets up a narrative, watches it play out, and ends it satisfyingly- with much of the entertainment value coming from the way it’s shot and scored. Maybe a little more setup would have been nice- a little more added to character motivation- but it’s a fun scene to watch unfold, which is certainly all you really need to know.
