If the first six minutes of Up were directed by David Cronenberg, the result might look something like Ian Samuel’s 13 minute short, Caterwaul.
The film, which I caught at last year’s FantasticFest, and has played a
bunch of festivals recently including Telluride, Slamdance and Toronto
After Dark, tells the story of an aging fisherman who finds himself
drawn to a lobster that begins to resemble his recently deceased wife.
While the premise may sound strange or even grotesque, there’s no
denying the film’s quiet emotional power. Samuel’s execution is that of
masterful minimalism; with almost no dialogue, the story is
communicated largely through the expression’s of grizzled character
actor George Murdock (in his final role) and the eerily soulful eyes of
the strange, amorphous creature that he takes into his home. The
puppetry used to bring “Hattie” to life is excellent, while the grey
skies of Cape Cod, Massachusetts lend the film a muted beauty that
reflects perfectly the pain of loss and loneliness.
Tom Clift: When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker?
Ian Samuels: I always liked telling stories. Before
I could write, I dictated stories about witches to my parents and then
illustrated them. This evolved into me performing one-man shows with a
pre-recorded supporting cast (me) on a tape recorder… often about
witches still. In middle school I started a marionette company with a
friend of mine. We built shows and toured Western Massachusetts. I
started getting into filmmaking around the same time. I would make
little stop motion films with objects around the house. I decided
sometime in high school that I wanted to go to college with a film
program. That was my first commitment to filmmaking.
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