Today I will be reviewing the short film ‘The Celluloid Woman’ which was released July 2020 and was submitted to us by directly director and writer Anantha Krishnan.

The visual cinematography right off the bat is impressive, especially for an indie production, and I liked the discussion about cinema, because film touches the hearts and minds of so many people and hearing someone discuss film with such passion was certainly engaging. I liked the almost laborious nature of some shots, it didn’t feel like it was trying to pad the run time, but instead painstakingly show routine. It’s also funny, it has a fly on the wall quality not unlike The Office, in particular there was one scene with a back and forth between the film preservationist and the person behind the camera where he is directing her and its funny in the way that simple human interactions can be funny. I think what I liked about it most was the honesty, it had unfilled silence, sniffles and people stumbling over words, all are very real to life and this film whether deliberately or not kept all that in and for me it added to the film.

This film really managed to capture an authenticity and universal human quality that transcends language barriers. I really did love conversations between the two primary characters in the film, it was dry and combative at times but it struck me as genuine and at times deeply humorous. I particularly liked the preservationist, she for me seemed like someone who is dedicated to her work and takes no nonsense. This is so different to the films I usually review that I don’t quite know on which scale to rate it so I will be honest and say I enjoyed it, I found it interesting and for that reason I think I will give it a 5/5.

Leave a comment