Staccato Review

This short film threw me for a loop a few times. The short film titled Staccato, brilliantly named after the musical articulation, was about two young men's relationship in what I think is the 18th century. The short film told a beautiful story of what life could have been like in a younger time than today. Now I may be getting into a lot of spoilers so beware.

From the beginning, I was not sure what to expect, when researching for films I tried not to read any articles that would inform me on what the story was and who was in it. In the days of trailers and multiple movie promos, I haven’t entered a film like this in a long time. My mind was almost on overdrive as the film began. One of my surprises was actually the time period. Forgive me for believing that this film would have taken place in a gorgeous manor. Here we meet some of the characters that are crucial for the story such as two of the main characters Elizabeth and her brother Thomas. Thomas is an artist and has been given the honour of opening for a well-known pianist within the region. Our eyes are then now shifted to the groundsman, Sean, who has now made an outburst bringing their attention to him. The story then acknowledges our main couple when Thomas after calling Sean incompetent goes over to figure out why has he made such an outburst. This leads to us having the first glance of what their relationship is like and behind a tree they share a moment where Thomas shows genuine care for what was wrong with Sean. However, this scene shows that their relationship is not only a huge power imbalance but a secret. The imbalance comes into play more and more within the film, one instance being when lying in bed together Sean inquires about what his mother would say if she were to find them in his room. Thomas goes on to say, although in a joking way, how she would have been enraged by the fact he is partaking in such devious acts but with a “peasant”. This imbalance is shown in another scene where Sean had left after being dismissed for the day and Thomas in a frazzle when he could not locate him, telling their maid Morie that his leaving was “defeating the purpose of their arrangement”. I feel as if this imbalance is what caused the film to end the way it did. The small stories that played around the main love story were wrapped beautifully as we see the relationship that Elizabeth and Sean had along with the bitterness of Moire. Yet, even with these thoughts being subconsciously put together while the film goes on, nothing could have fully prepared me for the ending.

Now I actually do not want to fully ruin the film for you if you have not watched it but my final thought is that Staccato is a definite film if presented with the time should be on your watchlist. The timing is 22 minutes and 52 seconds in all including opening and closing credits and it is free to watch on Youtube which I will link on this page if you want to check it out. It's a bittersweet film that I would watch again and showed queer representation in a way I have never seen before.