In search of: this disturbing film short
April 22, 2017 9:40 AM Subscribe
Hello hivemind. I need your help in finding a black-and-white film short that I saw once as a child.
In this short, two men are in a small courtyard with a high wall. They seem to be prisoners of some kind. Each day, a small boy prince appears on a balcony above the courtyard and tosses a ball into the courtyard. The two prisoners chase the ball frantically. Whichever one of them catches it is rewarded with food. One day, the two prisoners conspire to escape. One prisoner gives the other a boost up the wall. We see the prisoner's head emerging over the top of the wall. We see his face go from one of hope to one of abject fear, though we never see what it is he sees, and he opts to lower himself back into the courtyard rather than venture out. The end.
I saw this on TV decades ago. There was no dialogue that I can remember, although there was a music soundtrack. Googling isn't giving me anything. If it's not available online, what at least was the name of the short, and who made it?
In this short, two men are in a small courtyard with a high wall. They seem to be prisoners of some kind. Each day, a small boy prince appears on a balcony above the courtyard and tosses a ball into the courtyard. The two prisoners chase the ball frantically. Whichever one of them catches it is rewarded with food. One day, the two prisoners conspire to escape. One prisoner gives the other a boost up the wall. We see the prisoner's head emerging over the top of the wall. We see his face go from one of hope to one of abject fear, though we never see what it is he sees, and he opts to lower himself back into the courtyard rather than venture out. The end.
I saw this on TV decades ago. There was no dialogue that I can remember, although there was a music soundtrack. Googling isn't giving me anything. If it's not available online, what at least was the name of the short, and who made it?
Response by poster: Definitely wasn't the Twilight Zone. The black and white was deliberately grainy, despite being fairly contemporary, and there was literally no dialogue.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:43 PM on April 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:43 PM on April 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
The themes of food and hunger, imprisonment, and society being so terrible that people choose to stay imprisoned, as well as the black and white graininess of the film make it sound to me like it could be a Charlie Chaplin film. Would you have recognised him as a kid? If not, I'd comb through his stuff and see if it looks plausible. I haven't seen all of it, but it does remind me of some of what I have seen.
posted by lollusc at 6:43 PM on April 22, 2017
posted by lollusc at 6:43 PM on April 22, 2017
I'd be surprised if it's Chaplin. It sounds much more absurdist and surreal than his stuff. Unless you get lucky and somebody here has seen it, I think your only hope is to comb your memory for WHERE you saw it. Was it on TV? A film they showed at school? Part of a selection of shorts in a theater? Knowing where you saw it will really help you focus your search.
I wonder if you're remembering it accurately. Our memories can really scramble things up, and some incredibly traumatic hell hound movie from your childhood can turn out to be a scene from a goofy old comedy where James Garner gets chased by a barking sheepdog.
The plot you describe also sounds a lot like a dream. Could it be a childhood dream you're remembering as a real movie?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:26 AM on April 23, 2017
I wonder if you're remembering it accurately. Our memories can really scramble things up, and some incredibly traumatic hell hound movie from your childhood can turn out to be a scene from a goofy old comedy where James Garner gets chased by a barking sheepdog.
The plot you describe also sounds a lot like a dream. Could it be a childhood dream you're remembering as a real movie?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:26 AM on April 23, 2017
Response by poster: I saw this on television, probably on A&E in its early days. And I am certain I did not dream this. My dreams seldom have some kind of sociopolitical point to them or follow a chronology of events.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 12:01 PM on April 23, 2017
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 12:01 PM on April 23, 2017
Hmm. Do you remember anything about the actors, like if there was anybody even slightly familiar in there? Do any of these shows from A&E seem like they could have aired shorts? (That list is depressing! You can see the channel started with all these noble aspirations before they drifted into bottom-feeder reality show crud.) By "early days" are we talking about the 1980s?
Did you get the feeling the film was old, or was it modern and just shot in black and white for art's sake? Was it subtitled, or did the actors have accents that might help you place where it was made? Do you remember if it aired as part of a show with other shorts, or if it was introduced by a host? Are there any lines from it that stuck in your head? Was it a few minutes long, half an hour?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:02 PM on April 23, 2017
Did you get the feeling the film was old, or was it modern and just shot in black and white for art's sake? Was it subtitled, or did the actors have accents that might help you place where it was made? Do you remember if it aired as part of a show with other shorts, or if it was introduced by a host? Are there any lines from it that stuck in your head? Was it a few minutes long, half an hour?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:02 PM on April 23, 2017
Response by poster: Again, there was literally no dialogue, at all. Just some grim, atmospheric orchestral music. But the characters had a tall, larger guy and a shorter, skinny guy. Kinda Laurel and Hardy-ish, but not exactly.
I am fairly sure it was contemporary, but was deliberately shot in grainy black and white, but it could have also been a very old film, too.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:45 AM on April 24, 2017
I am fairly sure it was contemporary, but was deliberately shot in grainy black and white, but it could have also been a very old film, too.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:45 AM on April 24, 2017
Best answer: Mostly I've just been asking questions to try and jog your memory. Do you remember if there was ANY sound, other than the music? Like, was it a proper silent movie, or where there sound effects? It would be rare for a modern film to feature no sound at all, there would still be footsteps and the bouncing ball and stuff even if nobody said anything. If you knew this was an old silent film, that could help focus your search.
It seems you may have hit a dead end here. Maybe hit up a forum for film buffs and see if this sounds familiar. Depending on why you're looking, it may even be worth a call to A&E. That does seem a bit extreme, but it couldn't hurt I guess.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:08 PM on April 24, 2017
It seems you may have hit a dead end here. Maybe hit up a forum for film buffs and see if this sounds familiar. Depending on why you're looking, it may even be worth a call to A&E. That does seem a bit extreme, but it couldn't hurt I guess.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:08 PM on April 24, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:37 PM on April 22, 2017