“And The Party Goes On!” by Michael Asmar

“And The Party Goes On!” is the second short film made by Michael Asmar. Despite his young age, he has proved to be capable to create a really fine and powerful movie, with a surprising maturity worthy of an expert author. The director has chosen a precise authorial path, composed of a delicate sensitivity, a simple and impartial perspective and a very complex cinematographic realism. It’s really rare to find all these things in a short film, often because of the inexperience of the young directors and the few minutes available, but Asmar did it. With a “dry” and strong screenplay, structured on the deepest emotions of the protagonists and able to manage tension wonderfully, “And The Party Goes On!” the film involves the viewer without ever boring him, thanks to the fast changes of rhythm, never banal. The film develops around a few spaces and this allows the viewer to focus on the feelings and reflections experienced by the protagonists. The spaces shown in the film lead us into the intimacy of the protagonists, in a continuous exchange between their soul and the place they inhabit.  This simplicity is the key of the entire movie, the base of the poetic defined by Asmar. It seems to be easy to create, but there is obviously a great awareness, a great passion, behind this style.

The powerful story told by the director shows the frailties and horrors of human beings. What makes this film terribly sincere is the everyday life that surrounds these feelings, without any spectacle of pain and sadness. Asmar’s poetic realism leads us to the search for forgiveness, through good and evil, and the ending seems to suggest that the truth is at the bottom of each of us and nowhere else. The last frame is extremely strong, almost shocking yet extremely simple. The attention is all on Cécile, the protagonist, while she confesses her terrible crime. There is no escape and the viewer is forced to look into the eyes of who we believe the monster may be, and that it is often not.

A praise to acting and cinematography, which helped create a moving and engaging atmosphere.