A Year in Shorts Day 351: "Lavatory Lovestory"

Delbert Mann's Marty may not be the best film to win Best Picture, but it is one of the more interesting. A low key romance with Ernest Borgnine as the star, Marty stands apart from most Best Picture winners by focusing on regular people. Marty is a butcher, his love interest is a school teacher, and neither of them look like glamorous movie stars. Despite Marty's critical and commercial success, it did not inspire a long line of imitators, but there are plenty of films out there which follow in its example. Konstantin Bronzit's 2007 short Lavatory Lovestory is another entry in that tradition.


(via TV Tropes)


As you can probably surmise from the director's name, Lavatory Lovestory comes to us from Russia, a country not particularly known for its romance. It follows a bathroom attendant who one day discovers a bouquet of flowers left in her tip jar. Convinced that she has a secret admirer (I've convinced myself of the same for less), the lonely attendant sets about trying to discover said admirer's identity. What follows is a cute and gently funny short bound to appeal to any and all lonelyhearts out there. It runs a little long (and isn't big on huge laughs), but its charm and pleasant nature more than compensate for any shortcomings. Sure, it might be strange to set a love story almost entirely in a bathroom, but hey. Love can strike at any time and any place, right?



Much like Marty, Lavatory Lovestory is a fairly simple film, but that's what gives it its charm. The animation, for instance, is deliberately simplistic, featuring crudely drawn characters and a distinct lack of color. And yet Bronzit manages to do a lot with a little, using only a few lines to create fully expressive and sympathetic characters (made all the more impressive given the short's lack of dialogue), and using the mostly monochrome setting to establish the drabness of the world our protagonist lives in. It's nothing we haven't seen before (and often done better), but there's nothing wrong with that. Sure, it might not be great like some of the other shorts it was competing against, but those are some pretty high bars to clear. Sometimes you just need a film that tugs at the heartstrings a little and makes you feel good for the rest of the day. Lavatory Lovestory is one of those films.


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