NIMIC | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos (no rating, 12 mins)
For lovers of contemporary weird cinema, the recent filmography of Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos has offered up dark and stimulating vibes. With Oscar glory in The Favourite, perhaps his best work in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and a comedic affront in The Lobster, this should always be a director who gets people talking.
In his latest short, Nimic, we have a typically abstract yet simple idea of a menacing double. We see Matt Dillon, a cellist in an orchestra, rehearsing for a performance. Only by naively asking Daphne Patakia for the time on the subway do things begin to get quite blurred. She then follows him home and attempts to mirror his role as both father and husband. His wife and children appear uncertain who is real – a Kafkaesque kick that you just have to go along with, as the film won’t work if you don’t.
We all expected some fish-eye lenses and some eerie zooming in, the influence of Stanley Kubrick never being far away. It’s compelling – I wanted to live in the film, such was its handsomeness, and it’s the flashy camera work that makes it so alluring. We hear the uneasy vibes of Luc Ferrari, which permeates the score along with Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, the piece Dillon plays (rather convincingly, I might add) with his ensemble – though hearing Patakia play the same cello with no expected musicianship made for the most discordant passage. Nimic leaves you hungry for more and gets the juices in the brain going.
Streaming on MUBI now
words JAMES ELLIS