'The Man Without a Head'

'The Man Without a Head' or 'L'Homme Sans Tete' is a beautiful, bitter-sweet short film written and directed by Juan Diego Solanas and is a part of Cinema 16's European Short films.

I could go on forever about the moral/sociological ideas in this- in fact any one could. The message is what carries the video of course, but what each person takes from it is theirs to take.

What makes this video so special to me is the hyper-real colours and distortion of reality- all making this seemingly dystopian world come to life. And the simple elegance of the protagonist being a 'man without a head'. It creates an eery, sometimes comical and ultimately beautiful feeling in the viewer towards the main character with something so basic. At first we are surprised by him, then warm to him- we connect to him as humans despite something so fundamentally missing- his head. To be able to create a character that an audience can relate to with such an important piece of of their identity and ability to connect with others gone- it's no mean feat. Yet is done wonderfully in this piece.

In the end, we are so emotionally attached to this character, that we follow both his happiness and disappointments deeply and ultimately we are challenged by how we view other people and what is truly important.

To be able to achieve this in 17 minutes is incredible and that is why this is without a doubt among my favourite short films if not at the very top of the list.

For a recent film I made at University, we drew our initial ideas from this film. I hope to post that on here in the next few days...

In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't tell you that! 'The Man Without a Head' is not a film that I would want looked at side by side with my work. Talk about being over-shadowed! Please cast all memories of this flawless film aside when you watch mine!

Sorry about no subtitles. This was the only version I could find on the internet. However, if you can't speak French (like me, though I hope to remedy that) and would like to watch the film properly (seriously do it), then I do suggest getting your hands on Cinema 16s European short films. They are all worth watching and in fact, if you can, try and get your hands on the rest of their collections! I'm still in the process of doing so now.