26 April 2013

A Short Film About Love and Fate and Death


Do you know someone who just never seems to get a break?  Something hopeful appears on the horizon for them, you keep your fingers crossed and then – of course – hopes are dashed yet again.  Such a person is Tim (played by journalist, poet and it seems from this occasional actor Matthew Hedley Stoppard). After finally summoning up the courage to ask the girl of his dreams out on a date poor old Tim finds that the object of his affections doesn’t turn up after all. If this has happened to you then you know how devastating this can be.  There is no back-story but I suspect this has happened to Tim on more than one occasion...

Despite this rather glum premise, A Short Film About Love and Fate and Death, directed with panache by Jonathan Mills, is actually rather funny.  It also makes something of a statement about the modern British phenomenon of leaving a forest of flowers at the scene of each and every hapless individual’s demise. I blame that Princess Diana myself.