Eva (Gaspar Noé, 2005, Argentina)

Eva is a 2005 short directed by Gaspar Noe. The film has a strobing light effect which gives the impression of being at a nightclub. The film opens with a woman at a party, on a couch. It is hard to make out exactly what is going on, but the woman appears to be taking off her shoes on a couch. There is loud music in the background, accompanied by a sound effect of what sounds like air passing through a tunnel. The woman enters another bedroom and then begins to look at herself in a mirror. 

The music and unsettling noises continue as the woman seem to change from one to another woman - the woman we saw at the beginning of the film. A title card flashes on screen again, and the style of the film changes to continuous shots instead of the strobing effect. This time we are at a surreal swimming pool. A woman emerges from the pool and approaches another woman.

We enter the third section of the film, wherein a woman is crawling across a hallway and playing with a small kitten. While not using the strobing effect from earlier, the film flashes in and out of the darkness. The music becomes calmer and less chaotic, and the film ends with a shot of the kitten resting on the woman as she sleeps in the hallway. Eva is a surreal odyssey captured within only 6 minutes, and for that reason alone it is worthy of some respect. Few short films have the vision and audacity on display here, even if the film becomes a bit tired and cumbersome after a while. Still, for fans of Gaspar Noe, Eva is well worth checking out as it employs some interesting ideas in some interesting and provocative ways. 

7/10