TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! According to director Sid Zanforlin, Black Paris is principally about “the decisions we make.” This phrase acts as a master key to Zanforlin’s horror story. That key unlocks the film, allowing it to reveal a tantalizingly ambiguous aspect wherein much of the story’s emotion is intuited rather than explained. However, the film itself does not explicitly offer such a key, and without it, Black Paris—though provocatively presented—takes on too heavy of an abstract dimension.
Black Paris takes place in an indeterminate time period wherein Earth is engaged in a war with an unknown adversary. They are losing. That’s all the information given as a primer for the four-minute-long film.
“…takes place in an indeterminate time period wherein Earth is engaged in a war with an unknown adversary.”
And yet, despite the potential for confusion of artistic intentions, there is a lot of quality across Black Paris’s truncated runtime. Filmed entirely on The Volume (the technology used to shoot several modern shows, such as The Mandalorian), Black Paris presents its world through a contrast in aesthetics. It utilizes both black and white and vivid colour to explore themes such as decision, memory, and potentiality. These visuals are married with an intriguing narrative to create an unspoken but keenly felt logic.
But, because of the somewhat inscrutable nature of the film, Black Paris ultimately comes across as a moment in time for the director. Certainly, Zanforlin has extracted much value from his themes in so short of a time. But without the master key, these very themes feel unmoored to the point of being lost.
Black Paris screened at the 2023 Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
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