Mainstream success eludes short film
Jake Coyle

NEW YORK—The short has enjoyed a year of mainstream attention. As a prelude to “The Darjeeling Limited,” Wes Anderson created the 13-minute “Hotel Chevalier.” Earlier this year “Paris, Je T’Aime” assembled 18 well-known directors to each make a short film set in a Paris arrondissement. And Pixar again released a highly anticipated animated feature (“Ratatouille”) with a memorable short played beforehand (“Lifted”).
Yet widespread popularity has proved elusive for the short film. While the short story remains a great tradition in literature, the cinematic equivalent is largely marginalized.
Shorts predate feature-length films and were the springboard to stardom for Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, among others. (Pixar’s shorts, typically without dialogue, are in the tradition of these comedy classics as well as the revered 1957 Bugs Bunny short “What’s Opera, Doc?” by Chuck Jones.)
With the advent of sound, the short still played a key role in the theatrical experience — as a cartoon, newsreel or travelogue.
“They used to be terribly important because they filled out a film program,” says film historian and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne. TCM often airs classic shorts, while contemporary shorts fill in the broadcasts for the Independent Film Channel and the Sundance Channel.
Osborne says shorts were also “a kind of wonderful screen test” for people behind and in front of the camera. (Judy Garland got her start in a short film at MGM titled “Every Sunday.”)
Shorts, though, were eventually fazed out. They became an unnecessary expense to distributors, and theatre owners would rather squeeze in as many showings of features as possible.
Aspiring filmmakers typically create shorts to practice and prove their ability. George Lucas’s THX sound system, for example, is named after the sci-fi short he filmed at the University of Southern California: “Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB.”
Established directors rarely return to making shorts, which made “Paris Je T’Aime” an unlikely treat, drawing the talents of Joel and Ethan Coen, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles and others.