Birthday Presents

Consecution short.
Highly inventive subversion of the dark classic, "Peeping Tom.".
I shall not go into the sleight of hand TM2YC employs, but he manages to change this unpleasant British Noir thriller into a ripe romantic interlude.
The future for this couple is hopeful, even if it is the intoxication of attraction and infatuation.
The editor has overlaid a new music soundtrack, a bit heavy handed, that muffles some of the dialogue.
Not a major complaint, though it is noticeable.
Thank you also for opening and closing titles. Many editors do not bother.
Credits help mark the difference between a fragment and a short.

I enjoyed this on several levels. Foremost, it’s almost a different beast compared to the lurid original. TM2YC does a great job presenting a straightforward story that I’m sure the director never intended, and a great deal of the wonder comes from knowing of the transformation and seeing how it’s pulled off.

The original film, I found, is also the source of many of TM2YC’s fanediting hallmarks: his fanedit intros, his first-time edit approval graphic, and his very moniker. I was delighted to discover these elements, like a cosmonaut finding hot, gourmet cheeseburgers in a Martian cave.

The new Morricone score carries a somewhat high volume here and there. And though no fault of the faneditor, the inserted footage from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has unconvincing aged film effects. But the change I would have liked to see most, to decrease the perv vibe, is movie-within-movie material that’s more appropriate for a first date.

I love seeing edits of older films, and TM2YC does a great job of packaging the charm of another time period. I want to see more of these, please. Take me to your cinema.

A nice short that is quite a transformation from the source material. The editing is very well done. Narratively, Mark still comes off like a bit of a psycho in the beginning. There is a slight implication that he might be watching porn or snuff. Having him view something a bit tamer might have better sold that he was just a lonely, but harmless guy. A minor point though, and there is a lot of great editing on display!