IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Netflix
Fans of Wes Anderson were given a lot to look forward to last year thanks to Netflix. More specifically, the streaming service added four short films to its program that were directed by the cult director and based on short stories by Roald Dahl. The most attention was paid to "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar", which won an Oscar for Best Short Film this year. Not only is it by far the longest of the four films. It was also the first to be released and was shown in advance at the Venice Film Festival, which created a certain amount of pre-release hype. But "The Swan", which was released the following day as the second short film, is also worth a look.
In terms of content, the two works are completely independent of each other, the stories have nothing to do with each other. The cast has also been replaced. Only Ralph Fiennes, who takes on the role of Dahl himself in the adaptations, appears both times. However, Anderson, who is famous for his recurring collaborations, can't resist including a familiar face again. Specifically, Rupert Friend plays the lead role in "The Swan", having previously appeared in Anderson's "Asteroid City". This time, he takes on the role of narrator and guides you through the story.
Whereby the narrator here is more than just someone standing on the sidelines. As in "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar", the story is not so much acted out as retold. Friend takes center stage for just under 17 minutes and tells how a young boy called Peter Wilson is terrorized by two other boys. And not just him, the swan that gives the story its title and other birds are also targeted by the two brutals. The only difference is that the abuse is not shown, but only described verbally, which automatically creates distance. This is reinforced by the stage-like staging, in which a boy, who stands around as a wordless stand-in for Peter, is handed things.
The effect is curious, sometimes even really funny, as long as you can enjoy Anderson's narrative style. The settings are fairly straightforward this time, which of course makes "The Swan" a by-product compared to the director's main films. But even in its slimmed-down version, the short film is a beautiful and whimsical experience, which is both everyday and fairytale-like at the same time and provides variety in the daily streaming monotony despite the familiar stylistic devices.
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