Joakim Scheidegger’s 'Quelle Vie!' tells the story of Rémy, a young man, moving into an apartment in an old house. From the first moment he encounters a massive problem – he cannot hear the doorbell and this is causing him problems. When he confronts the home owner about this issue, the response is not what he would expect – the owner refuses to help him. The other story going on focuses on Amélie, Rémy’s girlfriend, who puts great pressure on him to have a key from his apartment.

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One thing we really loved about this movie was the narrative – very descriptive, with very good intermissions, very nice story structure. There is no doubt that this short was written by a professional writer, maybe a novelist. This kind of flawless story-telling is very hard to achieve, and 'Quelle Vie!' has the power to make you, as a viewer, to be a part of the story.

 

In terms of technicalities, everything is in its right place- the score is highly adequate, the cinematography is very good, and the whole setting of the short adds a massive bonus to the whole project. We can’t remember the last time we’ve seen such a perfect setting, with such a symbolic background. We should mention few of the elements: the main gate – rusty and always open, the easy passage, then comes the main door – only the tenants have access through it, because only they have the key, and here the metaphor goes deeper, (when Remy throws the key to Amelie), in a kind of Shakespearian way. The struggle to get the second key and the final scenes of the short foreground the struggle our main character goes through in order to please everybody. Of course, he later finds out that this is not the best thing to do…and he finds it in the hard way.

 

 

All in all, 'Quelle Vie!' is an interesting movie, with a superb story and a great cast. It is something you wouldn’t want to miss!

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Review written by Vlad A.G