L'origine de la tendresse and Other Tales

Product Description The World According to Shorts presents a program of six notable French short films, featuring a broad range of styles and genres, from animation to fiction to documentary, reflecting the diversity of both the visions of contemporary French filmmakers and the people of France from foundry workers in Brest to Algerian immigrants transplanted to Paris; from the malaise of la vie quotidienne for an upper-class married couple to flirtatious youths in the capital's Metro system. The half-dozen short films gathered into this smart and lively omnibus could all easily survive as solid works on their own individual merits, but are fortunately being presented together in theatres under the World According to Shorts banner... -Chris Barsanti, Film Journal International. The World According to Shorts proves that great things often come in small packages.-V.A Musetto, New York Post. [My Mother: Story of an Immigration] is...like a tale told from long ago...immediate and beautiful.-James van Maanen, Greencine. Alice Winocour's Kitchen, about a neglected wife trying to make dinner, is the most accomplished of the bunch. It may not erase memories of Annie Hall, but it's the second-funniest use of lobsters I've seen. -Vadim Rizov, The Village Voice. Review Short films have forever been bridesmaids and seldom brides. Occasionally, you might catch one at the IFC Center or the Landmark Sunshine that successfully diverts the attention of those waiting for the main attraction to start. Even at film festivals, shorts generally serve to warm up the screen before the features. The World According to Shorts has been an eight-year tradition at BAMcinématek that packages numerous short films into one marketable single ticket. As with the now-defunct Shooting Gallery and Sundance film series, the World According to Shorts offers the excitement of discovery without the hassle of a film festival. Through the years, it has proved to be a sound idea, and has spun off a DVD anthology and merited its latest program, L'origine de la tendresse and Other Tales, a theatrical run at Cinema Village beginning Friday. The latest program consists of six short films from France produced between 1999 and 2007. The roster is a veritable potpourri, and includes fiction, documentary, drama, comedy, and horror. The result is a mixed bag, but a couple of entries make the event well w