I really enjoyed this short, which I saw at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
It follows a classical music fan who becomes devoted to a preening concert pianist, Krzysztof Veneer, but this relationship is different from every other fan infatuation, given the fan's particularly irksome way of showing his jubilation.
At the end of every performance he attends, the Clapper does what his name suggests: he claps, obtrusively. His encyclopaedic knowledge of all things musical means he can second-guess the performer and other spectators, and clap precisely at the moment the performance ends. This means his (very loud) pair of hands are the first to be heard on any recordings of the music.
However, Veneer grows incensed with the Clapper's excoriating intrusions at the end of his playing, and following a brusque altercation, resolves to fight back and turns the tables of the Clapper, by using music .
'The Clap' looks and sounds great. It's very elegantly shot in 'scope, and has a great sense of atmosphere and place, with the shots of London at night and the concert hall interiors being particularly evocative. The performances are great too, with both Steve Furst and David Bamber giving their all in roles that are eccentric, to say the least. The classical music is also superb; that which is chosen is superbly integrated and the original score (by James Francis Brown) is buoyant and very easy on the ear.
It also succeeds in being quite touching, since any fan who idolises any musician (or writer, or director, or singer etc. etc.) will be able to relate (to a certain extent) to the Clapper's obsession, and his fastidious cataloguing of his musical collection and maintenance of equipment.
It's a slight fable, maybe, but a wholly likable one, and it will have you in stitches for most of it and smiling for the rest. You have to hand it to the film-makers and producers for achieving such a polished short on such limited resources.
Seek it out! (The production company is BreakThru Films)
It follows a classical music fan who becomes devoted to a preening concert pianist, Krzysztof Veneer, but this relationship is different from every other fan infatuation, given the fan's particularly irksome way of showing his jubilation.
At the end of every performance he attends, the Clapper does what his name suggests: he claps, obtrusively. His encyclopaedic knowledge of all things musical means he can second-guess the performer and other spectators, and clap precisely at the moment the performance ends. This means his (very loud) pair of hands are the first to be heard on any recordings of the music.
However, Veneer grows incensed with the Clapper's excoriating intrusions at the end of his playing, and following a brusque altercation, resolves to fight back and turns the tables of the Clapper, by using music .
'The Clap' looks and sounds great. It's very elegantly shot in 'scope, and has a great sense of atmosphere and place, with the shots of London at night and the concert hall interiors being particularly evocative. The performances are great too, with both Steve Furst and David Bamber giving their all in roles that are eccentric, to say the least. The classical music is also superb; that which is chosen is superbly integrated and the original score (by James Francis Brown) is buoyant and very easy on the ear.
It also succeeds in being quite touching, since any fan who idolises any musician (or writer, or director, or singer etc. etc.) will be able to relate (to a certain extent) to the Clapper's obsession, and his fastidious cataloguing of his musical collection and maintenance of equipment.
It's a slight fable, maybe, but a wholly likable one, and it will have you in stitches for most of it and smiling for the rest. You have to hand it to the film-makers and producers for achieving such a polished short on such limited resources.
Seek it out! (The production company is BreakThru Films)
