Review of the short film ‘Ralph’

Writer / Director: Alex Winckler

Producer: Olivier Kaempfer

When watching the short film ‘Ralph’, I straight away noticed that the movie was very similar to what happens in the film ‘Mr. Bean’s Holiday’. Ralph has arrived in France with his suitcase and a sheet of paper with Clares’ (his supposed lovers’) number on it. Ralph fails to get through to Clare after trying different numbers and ends up in a French restaurant. Ralph doesn’t get off to a very good start with the Waitress serving him however it all changes.

This short film is a dramatic romance as it features both a little drama and romance. Throughout the film there were many different camera shots. As Ralph walked out of the station into France, the camera did a 360° view around Raplh so the audience could get a good idea of the area surrounding him. They featured close ups numerous amounts of times to show Ralphs different emotions on his face. They also used close ups for the other characters featured in the film. The lighting throughout the film is very clear and everything is easy to sea. When he was in the station at the beginning, the lighting wasn’t as bright but that’s obviously because he was indoor, however when he stepped outside, the lighting was a lot brighter giving the impression that it was a sunny day in France.

Throughout the whole film there were only three noticeable sounds in the background. The first sound was just a busy area, for example, traffic passing and people chatting. When Ralph was in the restaurant there was some very subtle French music in the background which set the scene well. At the end of the film there was some upbeat music for the ending. Even though we don’t actually see what happens in the end completely, it was still seemed to be a happy ending.

The characters within the movie consist of Ralph, Clare, the waitress, the manager of the restaurant and Lorenzo. The narrative throughout the film is fairly complex as the film features French narrative without subtitles so we understand how Ralph must feel with everyone speaking French. The audience is just as confused as Raplh is with the language barrier.

Overall I enjoyed this short film and I think they very cleverly squeezed a lot into just the thirteen minutes space it was shot in.