Director:
Giovanny Blanco
Studio/Production Company:
Giovanny Blanco
Genre:
Drama
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
Winner Sleeping Giant Award Kent Film Festival 2008
2nd Place Narrative Competition Athens Film & Video Festival 2008
Official Selection Hartford International Film Festival
Official Selection Imagine Film Festival
Website:
http://www.corneliusthemovie.com
Score:
2/5
Plain and simple, “Cornelius” seems to suffer from the same problem/technique that plagues a lot the of low-budget indie films I have been seeing lately: attempting to distract from a lack of a feature’s worth of content with “mood” and “atmosphere” – in other words, many long, slow sequences of life going by without much of anything actually happening, lots of long shots of characters looking pensive or scenery that is supposed to make us see the world around us in a new light. It usually doesn’t work.
Such is the case with director Giovanny Blanco’s film. Beautifully shot in shimmering black and white with some color sequences, the film doesn’t really unfold, it meanders and takes quite awhile to really get going but, by the point that it does, I fear that many viewers will have opted out of the experience.
More a leisurely character study than a conventionally narrative driven plot, “Cornelius” concerns the exploits of the title character (played by Jason Williams) as he is released from a stay in an institution and attempts to assimilate back into life following a traumatic event. Lots of long, mostly silent sequences of Cornelius, haunted by his past, observing the world around him, mixed with occasional scenes with other people that he encounters, do not necessarily drive the plot but color the atmosphere.
The film unfolds episodically – this happens, then that happens, then this other thing happens as opposed to unfolding as a conventional cinematic narrative: this happens which causes that to happen which causes this other thing to happen. On the surface, it really just seems like a bunch of scenes slapped together, coming right after each other rather than flowing into each other, drawn along by a narrative thread.
Yes, there probably are other films that take this approach and that could be part of the problem; “Cornelius” is not only not particularly engrossing it just feels like it has all been done before.
Giovanny Blanco
Studio/Production Company:
Giovanny Blanco
Genre:
Drama
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
Winner Sleeping Giant Award Kent Film Festival 2008
2nd Place Narrative Competition Athens Film & Video Festival 2008
Official Selection Hartford International Film Festival
Official Selection Imagine Film Festival
Website:
http://www.corneliusthemovie.com
Score:
2/5
Plain and simple, “Cornelius” seems to suffer from the same problem/technique that plagues a lot the of low-budget indie films I have been seeing lately: attempting to distract from a lack of a feature’s worth of content with “mood” and “atmosphere” – in other words, many long, slow sequences of life going by without much of anything actually happening, lots of long shots of characters looking pensive or scenery that is supposed to make us see the world around us in a new light. It usually doesn’t work.
Such is the case with director Giovanny Blanco’s film. Beautifully shot in shimmering black and white with some color sequences, the film doesn’t really unfold, it meanders and takes quite awhile to really get going but, by the point that it does, I fear that many viewers will have opted out of the experience.
More a leisurely character study than a conventionally narrative driven plot, “Cornelius” concerns the exploits of the title character (played by Jason Williams) as he is released from a stay in an institution and attempts to assimilate back into life following a traumatic event. Lots of long, mostly silent sequences of Cornelius, haunted by his past, observing the world around him, mixed with occasional scenes with other people that he encounters, do not necessarily drive the plot but color the atmosphere.
The film unfolds episodically – this happens, then that happens, then this other thing happens as opposed to unfolding as a conventional cinematic narrative: this happens which causes that to happen which causes this other thing to happen. On the surface, it really just seems like a bunch of scenes slapped together, coming right after each other rather than flowing into each other, drawn along by a narrative thread.
Yes, there probably are other films that take this approach and that could be part of the problem; “Cornelius” is not only not particularly engrossing it just feels like it has all been done before.