User Reviews

"Tempus" is a rare breed of short film that prefers visual poetry to that of simply being visual for the sake of being visual. What I mean is, each shot, motion, or emotion could be interpreted differently. Short films to me are the perfect way for an individual to put their visual stamp in the film world, even though they may not quite get the recognition they so richly deserve. In this case, director Ian Clay and his incredible team of artists (I ponder how he got such talent in the first place) tell quite simply the tale of a man running to his wife.

With that simple story so many questions can be asked and discussed: Why is he running to his wife? What is contained in the letter he drops in the dirt? Why does he age backwards? What does the dove represent in the end? Coming back around to what i said earlier, all of these can be answered any way the viewer perceives them. For me this seemed like the story of a man who yearns to hold onto the woman of his dreams whom he had the fortunate opportunity to spend his life with. His aging backwards may signify his feelings about how cares little about the world around him and his core essence and spirit of youth is what propels him to his wife. The dove forms in that he and the woman are one forever and ever and that they will now go off to who knows where.

Now that is my opinion and I could be reading to deeply into it. Another person who saw this, or Mr. Clay himself may say differently. I remember Roger Ebert speaking of the ending of Hal Ashby's film "Being There." He asked some students what the meaning of Sellers walking on water in the end meant, as he had no such hint or buildup of this moment at all. When so many students gave "deep" answers, Ebert said they were all wrong. The moment was what it was. He walked on the water and that's that. This is a prime example of such storytelling. It certainly is what it is, but that doesn't necessarily that our own opinion of what we are watching cannot be quashed by a straightforward explanation.

Clay's fantastical use of the camera also gives us more information about the story and the feelings than we initially realize. It's filled with dust dancing through the beams of light, hearkening the work of masters Vilmos Zsigmond and Emmanuel Lubezki in creating a winsome and beautiful atmosphere. The music adds to this charming atmosphere, not really giving the emotional cues we are accustomed to, but drawing them out of us gradually.

So yes, "Tempus" is a short film masterpiece. Enough said.

Full disclosure: this film was brought to my attention by someone directly involved in its creation. I viewed it and am reviewing it here at their request. There will be spoilers ahead:

I've viewed and reviewed something on request once or twice before. The following comments are my honest appraisal of the work in question. Truthfully, this probably would have passed under the radar for me, as my primary interest is short animation and I watch relatively few live action shorts these days.

It will take me longer to write this review than it did watching the short, which is just under four minutes in length. There really isn't a plot. It's more a snapshot of a moment in time in the lives of an older couple. Shown visually, without words, we see an older man walking slowly to his house. Neatly dressed, he labors as he walks home. We then see a woman, bedridden and clearly dying, inside the house.

Suddenly, the man is seized by an urgency. He must get to his wife quickly. As he begins to run, his age begins dropping away and he appears progressively younger, knocking down obstacles in his path, ending with his shattering the door to his home. Their eyes meet and they simultaneously reach out for each other. The ending is visually nice, so I won't spoil it here.

The technical aspects are very good in this. The editing, the score, the visuals, the cinematography and the acting are all quite first rate. The pacing of the film holds up as well. It may well be harder to time out a short like this than it is a feature, because literally a half a second can be the difference between success or failure. This isn't typically something I would watch, but I'm glad that I did so.

I saw this at Vimeo and would recommend it to your attention.