French Roast
French Roast
| 19 February 2010 (USA)
French Roast Trailers

In a fancy Parisian Café, an uptight businessman discovers he forgot to bring his wallet and bides his time by ordering more coffee.

Reviews
Kirpianuscus

an ordinary embarrassing situation. a not reasonable solution. and the end. the psychological problem, who could reflect the case of each of us is the essence of the force of this so simple animation. and the emotion of the last part. because "French Roast" is more an answer than a show. to an if who is far to be eccentric. to the risk to lose the respect and the high reputation because a stupid error. result - an admirable short film.impeccable for each detail.

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Robert Reynolds

This short was deservedly nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead:If and when you watch this short, take a moment to watch what's going on behind the man drinking all the coffee in the booth. It's a mirror behind him in which you see a reflection of the street outside the window the man is facing, as well as the characters passing in front of the mirror inside the café. The animation is excellent here.This short focuses on the interactions of several characters with each other, in particular one well-to-do gentleman who is drinking coffee and reading the financial section of a newspaper. The other principals are a vagabond collecting scraps of paper and begging for change, a waiter, an old woman sitting next to the man and a man who comes in to post a wanted poster of a bank robber. All of these intersect to one degree or another.The man drinking coffee finds early on that he hasn't got his wallet and cannot pay for his coffee. Instead of admitting this, he simply continues drinking coffee and digging himself in deeper. He has several encounters with the vagabond, who hits him up for change and whom he ignores.The old lady, napping until the vagabond importunes her, pulls out a wrapped bundle of banknotes and gives one to the vagabond, who treats it like just another bit of scrap paper. The old lady goes to the bathroom. The well dressed man considers taking money from her purse, but fate and circumstances foil him more than once.Enter the man posting the wanted poster. The next scene, it's now dark, the man who posted the poster is now asleep, snoring loudly and leaning into the well dressed and now desperate man, who reaches into the old lady's purse, pulls out something and causes bedlam in doing so. I won't spoil this part.The end of the short is perfect, with the moment of reckoning turning into a moment of resolution just ambiguous enough for the viewer to draw their own conclusions while the look on the face of a man pulled from outright despair by an unlikely source (certainly in his eyes) and leaving him with much to consider.This short is well worth seeking out. Most highly recommended.

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Horst in Translation ([email protected])

This Academy-Award-nominated short film centers around a businessman who sadly forgot his purse. So there he is the "poor" fella sitting at a café ordering coffee after coffee to avoid the waiter getting him the invoice. Which is constantly rising this way of course. Thankfully he's not alone at the café. There's a sleepy old God-devoted lady next to him with a whole bunch of banknotes in her bag. Oh no, he won't. Or will he?This film thrives mostly through the character animation. Joubert, the director, succeeds in making all five characters compelling to watch thanks to his fixation on detail. You almost regret you can't focus on several characters at the same time occasionally as their actions are so interesting to watch. I liked the first half of the eight minutes a bit more than the second, but it's suffering on a high level. It surely is a good short film that leaves us with a catchy tune and a noble message. Oh and don't worry it says Language French, there's only two sentences or so actually spoken, so you'll have no trouble understanding everything.

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evening1

At only eight minutes in length, this seemed overly long by half, and repetitious, but it ends on a somewhat pleasant, if hackneyed, note.A conservative man who apparently cannot admit he forgot his wallet at home tries to save face by ordering one coffee after another as a hunchbacked waiter and various other eccentrics come and go at the cafe.An annoying sort of elderly Jesus figure traipses in and out and you wonder who he is and finally you see that he's a benefactor who shows up just in the nick of time to help the mortified espresso drinker out of his jam.The best part of the film is the very French vocal track that jauntily accompanies the final credits.

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