2008 Directed by Denis Villeneuve
During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events destabilizes the endless symphony of abundance.
Jean Marchand Luc-Martial Dagenais Neil Kroetsch Emmanuel Schwartz Warren 'Slim' Williams Jean-Robert Bourdage Valérie Wiseman Dennis St John Sébastien René Simone Chevalot Kenneth Fernandez Mathieu Handfield Ariel Ifergan Sergey Marchenko Deepak Massand Gaétan Nadeau Charles Papasoff Daniel Rousse Helga Schmitz
This was brilliant. An allegorical, absurdist, eerie & quite funny short film directed by Denis Villeneuve. It's technically well executed, the cinematography is sharp and sound design is great.
Denis Villeneuve really needs to make a film about each of the 7 Deadly Sins because he has already NAILED Gluttony with NEXT FLOOR, Lust with ENEMY and Wrath with PRISONERS.
After watching and enjoying several of Dennis Villeneuve's full-length features, I decided to delve into his previous efforts in filmmaking, leading me to watch his short film Next Floor.
It is an extremely well accomplished film, be it in terms of photography, which possesses an eerie and provoking quality, or in terms of sets, costumes and makeup which are all complexly meticulous in striving to build the bizarre and uneasy atmosphere. Even the speechless acting conveys through facial expressions so much of that nonconformist and idiosyncratic mood. As an excellent counterpoint to the grotesqueness of the images, there is the beautiful chamber music and the chorus of detailed sound effects which create an impressively tense and nerve-wracking feel.
In Next…
Denis Villeneuve, you fucken genius.
Is it a coincidence that this short film came out in 2008?
This is a gross depiction of the downward spiral of higher class gluttony, causing absolute wreckage as they fall into darkness. The servant will serve his master. Infinitely.
Nothing will change for the ones at the top floors, but everything will change for those at the bottom.
I’ve been watching a bunch of shorts on the criterion channel, trying to gain inspiration for my Sight & Sound final and have only become more disillusioned with the short film format. Then I was reminded of this one, and I remembered that short films can be pretty good.
![nathaxnne [hiatus]](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/avatar/upload/1/9/5/2/4/3/shard/avtr-0-80-0-80-crop.jpg?k=6516bf4433){kind=small}
'Next Floor' has as its central conceit a gag worthy of the Marx Brothers at their best, extended for 10 or so minutes. Denis Villeneuve is awesome as a concrete fist to the face, but can (at least to me) be less than engaging when there is no surprise left-hook awaiting. Thus, the sustained weirdness of 'Enemy' works because it is only and exactly what it is, but opened up with space inside to dream. 'Next Floor' is an excellent allegory for humanity's feverish consumption of all of life imperiling their own home and survival, but does not stray beyond allegory.
man i love crazy french canadians, the floors they will fall through just to have their tasty freshly made mcdonalds McRhino meal served with a deer mcmuffin.
me : denis, please.....i'm a vegetarian
denis: i'M sOrRy I'm NoT nOrMaL, nOrMaL pEoPlE sCaRe Me
This is a well made short film with a good message about greed but it was still a bit repetitive.
The cinematography was nice and the short film had quite a few great shots and sequences. The sound was also good but maybe a bit too exaggerated and loud for my taste.
The message about greed and how it destroys us was shown well and the short film clearly inspired the imo better and deeper movie “The Platform”. The message here was still important and effective though, and it had just the right amount of meaning and symbolism to fit the short runtime.
you know when a guy without a sense of humor tries to tell a joke and it’s not that’s it’s not kinda amusing but you’re still waiting for the funny part and he just keeps going but it’s not really going anywhere new and you realize that he’s gonna keep circling the same point until you acknowledge that this is the funny part to him and you smile and nod and hope he will wrap it up soon but he doesn’t he just keeps going thinking it’s the funniest thing ever and you are just waiting for the punch line so this all can be over but you’re also a little worried that you won’t even know it’s the punch…
