Short Break | No Time

A long time before the days of Requiem For a Dream and Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky was "just" one of the most promising graduates from the directing program at the American Film Institute. Apparently, the most important short from his days of studying, Supermarket Sweep, became an actual National Student Academy Award finalist! However, neither this nor his other two AFI shorts Fortune Cookie and Protozoa, are available to common peasants like me. With no time on my hands and a strong desire to participate in French Toast Sunday's amazing director months, I tracked down the last of Aronofsky's short films. It is named, ironically No Time.

If your impression of Aronofsky so far has been that of a highly intelligent director who makes slightly depressing movies - including what is probably the most depressing movie of all time - you will think again once you've seen the precious 1994 short No Time. Where to start? It's pure mayhem from the beginning and then 22 minutes onward until the end. Consisting of several short episodic sequences that bear close resemblance to those sketch shows that seem to have disappeared from [Danish] television, this film is as different from the other two Aronofsky films I've seen, as the black swan is from the white swan. If anyone could've told that this was an Aronofsky film without knowing, I will quit being a semi-critic and watch 1000 more movies before I start writing about them again. 

The protagonists of the short are four friends that may or may not be living together, and whose entertainment options have narrowed down - however, we only find out what has happened in the middle of the short. Anyway, the try to bide their time by playing charade and also going on individual adventures such as playing basketball and fishing. If this sounds pretty basic; yes, it is, but Aronofsky manages to fill every sequence with enormous amounts of slapstick and situational humour that is pushed to an almost grotesque level in the end. This kind of humour is certainly dangerous and not universal at all, even for me, it can go either way. But within minutes, I found myself laughing louder than what is probably appropriate when your sister is trying to fall asleep next-door. No Time worked just as well for me as Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan have, although on a completely unexpected, ridiculous level. I can't wait to finally watch his other three - well, actually four now - movies soon. If you would like to see No Time for yourself, scroll down and hit |>.

All month long, FTS will be highlighting the work of Darren Aronofsky and also posting other related articles and links from around the web. Post your links and find banners here, send an email to lindsay@frenchtoastsunday.com for help and use the hashtag #DarrenAPRILofsky for tweets.