Constantine Giannaris, The Short Films (Greece/Water Bearer DVD/Gay)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Shorts: C+
Despite
having some kind of important reputation as a filmmaker, I had never heard of
Constantine Giannaris and it turns out he is really a relatively new filmmaker
who happens to have gay concerns front and center in his work. This does not make him Todd Haynes, but from
the three shorts in this new Constantine
Giannaris, The Short Films Water Bearer DVD release, you can see he is
serious about approaching the subject mater with more than just some softcore
sex goal.
Caught Looking (35 minutes) is the best of the
three, imagining a world of on-line sex in 1991 long before the feasible
technology existed and his version is more interesting on an imaginative and
stylized level than some of what you can run out and buy today. North Of
Vortex (55 minutes) is an abbreviated road movie that has mixed results and
though it is somewhat ambitious, does not add up as one would hope for. A
Place In The Sun (45 minutes) is the old man/young man relationship story,
but nothing new results here. At least
in the latter two cases, it is a more mature approach to relationships that we
have seen in the majority of Gay male work we have seen lately. If you are very interested, than it is worth
a look.
The 1.33
X 1 image on all three shorts are about the same, with the first being filmed
in color and the later two in black and white, the final recent one looks
taped. The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 in
all cases, barely stereo and recorded well enough that none are a problem. The only extras are director intros to each
short you might want to skip at first before watching them.
- Nicholas Sheffo
