Short Shot: Next Floor for the Bourgeois Dinner Party, Please
The short film Next Floor references the work of Luis Buñuel, and like his films, makes a piercing social critique, all wrapped up in a compelling filmmaking style and satirical attitude.
“The desire to illustrate ‘gluttony’ in the form of a bourgeois dinner party was compelling in our era of over-consumption.”
– Next Floor producer Phoebe Greenberg
– Next Floor producer Phoebe Greenberg
An upper crust dinner. Well-dressed socialites gorge themselves on every animal possible, splayed across the huge dining table, filling up their bottomless pit stomachs with meat and trimmings. Servants and musicians scramble to keep them entertained. Then the inevitable comes (not that they even care).
Next Floor references the work of Luis Buñuel, and like his films, makes a piercing social critique, all wrapped up in a compelling filmmaking style and satirical attitude. The film was shot in the summer of 2007, but is more timely than ever given the current world economy and CEOs continuing to award themselves with lucrative bonuses.
“The notion of the apocalypse has been a recurring theme in my work,” says creator and producer Phoebe Greenberg. “And fortunately, that was an inspiration for the director, Denis Villeneuve. The desire to illustrate ‘gluttony’ in the form of a bourgeois dinner party was compelling in our era of over-consumption. The grotesque aesthetic and brutal consequences are inspired by some of my favorite Eastern European dramaturges, notably Stanislaw Witkiewicz and director Tadeusz Kantor.”
Greenberg’s career has been in the theatre with film as a recent preoccupation, with the short film format giving her opportunities to take risks in story and style and to work with film professionals. She chose Villeneuve as Next Floor’s director after seeing his feature film Maelstrom. Forming a strong artistic collaboration, they worked on the script together.
“The screenplay has modern elements of old silent film comedic shorts and very little narrative,” Greenberg says. “This medium and format was the most accurate expression to get the point across and to have impact on a large and diverse audience.”
With no dialogue, the images do all the storytelling in Next Floor. The character’s vibrant faces and slight motions, the primeval displays of raw food, and the dust-covered clothes all provide the “meat” of the film for viewers to chew on. Next Floor may not make you feel better about the world’s class struggles, but it will remind you that you are not alone.
