A Year in Shorts Day 144: "The Cathedral"

Every now and again, I come across a short that’s rather difficult to find much to talk about. There are various reasons for this. Sometimes a short is great, but in a way that’s fairly self-evident and hard to add to. Other times a short is very abstract and somewhat difficult to analyze without projecting. Some shorts are just military propaganda, which just isn’t very interesting to talk about. And some are just plain bad and not worth the effort! But sometimes a short is perfectly fine, visually striking and perfectly entertaining but still tricky to discuss just because there’s not too much going on under the surface. Tomasz Baginski’s 2002 short The Cathedral is definitely one of those films.


(via TV Tropes)


Based on the short story by Jacek Dukaj, The Cathedral is a Polish science fiction short, which means that's another country we can check off our international short films bingo. Luckily for us the film is totally wordless, so there's no language barrier for us to worry about. It follows the story of some unnamed space explorer who discovers a bizarre cathedral on an alien planet. The explorer decides to check it out, and is subjected to the best spooky images that low budget European CGI that the early 2000s can provide.



The film that came to mind while watching The Cathedral was the first film I watched in 2021- John Carpenter's The Fog. I wouldn't call The Fog a great movie, but it's fun and spooky and good to look at. And I think that sums up The Cathedral perfectly. It's not a revolutionary short or a masterpiece of horror cinema. But if you want something creepy with its own distinct style, you could do a lot worse. There may not be a lot going on under the surface (or maybe there is, I don't know), but there doesn't really have to be. It's a campfire story, and sometimes that's all you need.


Keep up with the Oscar Baiting here on Letterboxd!


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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Song of the Week #6: "The Ballad of High Noon"

Image
I was finally able to catch Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast this weekend, and I have to say it certainly lived up to the hype. There’s a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, the exquisite performances from both the seasoned veterans and newcomers in the cast, to a script that’s brimming with heart and humor. But one aspect of the film I don’t see a lot of people mention is the way it incorporates footage from other films- most notably Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, using not only a scene from the movie itself but scoring two pivotal scenes with the film’s theme song, the aptly-named (and Oscar-winning) “The Ballad of High Noon.” It was a bold choice to be sure, but who could blame Branagh? It’s a great movie, and a great song- and the subject for today’s installment in Song of the Week. (via Wikipedia) For those of you haven't seen High Noon... well, you really should get on that, it's a classic! Aside from being a taut, tightly edited thril
Read more

Song of the Week #15: "Take My Breath Away"

Image
I’ll put myself on a consistent schedule for these things one day, I promise. In my defense, there are a lot of movies to catch up on, and isn’t that what Oscar Baiting is all about? For instance- until recently, I’d never seen the original Top Gun! But with Top Gun: Maverick holding its spot as the biggest hit of the year (probably only to be dethroned by Black Panther or Avatar ) and even potentially soaring into the obligatory crowd pleaser Best Picture slot, I figured it was time to see where things began. Because while the Oscars Top Gun: Maverick may win have yet to be decided, the first Top Gun only went home with one- for the love theme, “Take My Breath Away.” (via Wikipedia) Love themes for films have gone a bit out of style these days, although for a long time it seemed to be a surefire way to nab a Best Song nomination. Seriously, look through the Wikipedia article and count how many times you see "Title Seemingly Chosen at Random (Love Theme from Movie You Didn
Read more

This Year in Shorts: The 95th Academy Awards

Image
  (via Wikipedia) Once again the most magical time of year is upon us- the time in which we look at all fifteen of this year's Oscar-nominated shorts and rank them arbitrarily based on my own personal preference at the time of publication. If that's not magical, I don't know what is! Still, I know that not everyone is as into the shorts as I am. Even aside from that, not everyone has the free time or desire to search all of them out. But the Academy will be airing ALL the categories live this year, and as such it might be good to have a baseline of what potential wins we should be celebrating or getting unreasonably mad about. And isn't getting unreasonably mad about things what awards season is all about? Not that there's too much to get worked up over this year. This year's crop of nominees are mostly pretty damn good, and even the bad ones don't make me angry like they did LAST year. Which came as a bit of a surprise to me, considering the guy who made t
Read more