(Video Link)
Bunker, a short film by Paul Doucet, is about a woman alone in a bunker beneath Paris after a nuclear war. Marie pleads over her radio for someone to respond to her. Finally, a voice answers.
Dialogue in French with English subtitles. Run time: 10 minutes. Content warning: foul language.
via io9
I think it's better to let the viewer decide wether she survives or not. Even if I have my own opinion ;)
I'm Paul Doucet, Bunker's film director.
I see a lot of reactions around here, and I'll try to answer most of them.
- it's only my first short movie. I thought i had a good story on the paper, but once shot, the final twist seems more obvious. I'll be more carefull about this for my next project
- I had no special ambitions for this project, but to get it done. I'm very glad that you find the technical part just great, because i was anxious about it.
- For those who talk about the climax and the lack of resolution. For me, the story isn't about the suicide, but about how this woman who was ready to die will be ready to fight again. Will she survive ? Will she die ? Somehow, it doesn't matter. She goes out, meaning that she's ready to fight for a chance. If you saw "Cube", it's the same kind of ending. My story was in the bunker, and only in the bunker.
- Yes, I did some translations mistakes. I'll do a new version without spelling mistakes.
- The film is only 10' length, because it was a self production, and i didnt have the money to shoot something longer or with more people on screen.
I hope this few points will answer some of your questions...
October 7th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
The peak of the emotion was when she got a response, couldve ended around there."
And that was only about 3/10ths of the movie. The rest of it was superfluous and drawn out past its actual climax.
"ted October 8th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
And why did the dude let her in on the deception? For the same reason that villains always tell James Bond their plans before they try to (unsuccessfully) kill him?"
This was what ultimately pushed me over the edge from "eh, don't care, this is going on too long" to "uhm, yeah, that was ass."
Proof that editing makes the story. A director should know when to allow, and when to cut out, the scenery chewing. This short, while wasn't bad in the sense of production values for a short, over dramatized the wrong aspect of the story IMHO.
Spend a little more time setting up why she feels hopeless and wants to kill herself, add some hesitation so that it's not an early deus ex machina of the radio squabbling that saves her from killing herself... and absolute radio silence after she reveals her bunker location. From that point on... the focus is back on her and not the stupid exposition that explains away everything. What does she do? THAT is a more interesting and suspenseful story to me.