SHORT TO FEATURE
Watch 6 Shorts From Big Directors
This week on PROVOKR, we have five classic movies that were short films first then made into features. It is a long list: La Jetee, director Chris Marker, 12 Monkeys, director Terry Gilliam; Alive in Joberg and District 9, director Neill Blomkamp; The Dirk Diggler Story and Boogie Nights, director Paul Thomas Anderson; Peluca and Napoleon Dynamite, director Jared Hess; Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB and THX-1138, director George Lucas; The Hard Case and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, director Guy Ritchie. All of the shorts are prototypes of the longer productions. We will go through each pair of features and shorts.
THE HARD CASE / LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS
The Hard Case is a crime drama starring Darren Spencer and Jim Tarbuck. The film opens in a suitcase shop. The pair buy a silver hard-sided suitcase for “dough” and rack-up money for a betting ring in underground London. The movie has violence and gang wars, which create tension and suspenseful moments, including staring contests. This short preceded Guy Ritchie’s successful long-form project Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
THE DIRK DIGGLER STORY / BOOGIE NIGHTS
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film The Dirk Diggler Story led to the development of Boogie Nights about a porn star who makes it in music but loses himself to drugs. Mark Walberg stars as protagonist Dirk Diggler whose world is all sex and drugs.
ALIVE IN JOBURG / DISTRICT 9
Alive in Joburg is a moving six-minute picture by Neill Blomkamp about aliens living in the slums of Johannesburg, South Africa. The documentary captures life in a ghetto of Johannesburg after a spaceship lands in a dilapidated town. The long-form District 9 followed. It was a tour de force of Blomkamp’s cinematic genius.
LE JETÉE / 12 MONKEYS
Chris Marker is a brilliant French director with a moving style of storytelling. His film La Jetee (1962) is about loss and events in an airport just before a bomb goes off. It also details an underground lab where memories are studied to prevent the nuclear explosion. It is about love and loss after a long relationship. This film precedes 12 Monkeys, with Bruce Willis, about a time-traveling man trying to prevent a plague.
PELUCA / NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
Jared Hess directs Peluca, a comedy based on the exploits of a young man named Seth. He skips class to purchase a wig and fanny pack from a thrift store. He has a friend Pedro who helps Seth deal with bullies. The film ends with the fanny pack and wig. Seth also helps a wayward kid by giving him a toy and handshake. Napoleon Dynamite plays the socially awkward Seth.
ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH: THX-1138 4EB / THX-1138
Electronic Labyrinth: THX-1138 4EB is a sci-fi thriller about a man trying to escape from a computerized world. The George Lucas project became a feature film in 1971, starring Robert Duvall. PROVOKR loves these stories that juxtapose time and space and evolve from shorts to features.
