A Year in Shorts Day 69: "Maestro"

Building an entire short film around a one joke premise is always a risk. Granted, it’s easier (and infinitely more advisable) than building an entire feature around it, but still. To pull it off requires skill, precise timing and, most of all, surprise. And luckily for us, that’s exactly what Maestro has in abundance.


(via IMDb)


Maestro is a 2005 Hungarian short directed by Geza M. Toth, and that's really all I can say in terms of summary. As I said, shorts like this rely heavily on surprise to work, and if I go into too much detail, I might risk spoiling it for you! Luckily for you, the movie is only five minutes long and streaming on Amazon Prime, so you can experience the fun for yourself!


The Maestro insists you watch his short before you read the rest of this post

(via Wikipedia)


Well that was pretty good right? The short is mostly just four minutes of setup for the punchline, but it's pretty good setup at least. For whatever reason the animation strongly reminds me of VeggieTales (not a bad thing if you ask me), and the mechanical arm is pretty cool. And props must be given to the short's cinematography, with the one unbroken shot ratcheting up the comic tension. The score certainly helps in that regard, too. All the pieces of the short work together like a... well, perhaps I won't give away the game for anyone who decided to skip ahead without watching the short.


(via IMDb)


Maestro is one of those films that you can really only watch once, but that's no great concern. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a quick and fun little short, and I feel like it's something anyone can enjoy on some level. Besides, as far as one-joke shorts about birds go, we all know it can be much, much worse.


Keep up with the Oscar Baiting here on Letterboxd!


"Maestro" is available to stream on Amazon Prime


The Great Oscar Baiter is a not-for-profit work of criticism. All images herein are property of their respective owners and are protected under Fair Use.

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