By Ramtin Ebrahimi
The short film, How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying, directed by Tania Emery, begins with the dreamlike tone and voice of a narrator amidst an eerie play of light and color. The omniscient narrator provides us with brief yet advancing information about the geographical setting of the story, detailing the city, neighborhood, characters, and atmosphere we are about to encounter.
The narrator advances the story by introducing an advertising company in the Petrovia area of London. This playful name is given by the young director to an area where the story is going to unfold, in one of its buildings. In the next scene, as we see a colossal cargo ship cutting through the ocean, the omniscient narrator informs us that the ship is carrying a cargo of biscuits from China to England. This shipment is to be branded and marketed by the advertising company of the branding genius Nic Goldstein.
In the following scene, we encounter a man lying on the floor of what we deduce to be his office (we guess from the framed photos of him on the walls that it is his office), passed out in a drunken fit as evidenced by the empty beer bottles on the desk above him. We hear the thoughts passing through Nic’s mind. The omniscient narrator tells us that Nic was once a legend in his field but now faces a dire professional situation, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and collapse. The only way to save him lies in the biscuits!
Short films have a significant characteristic that poses both a challenge and an opportunity for filmmakers: the short timeframe they have within which they must construct their fictional world, introduce characters, pose a problem, escalate it to a crisis, and conclude with a resolution. This characteristic makes the filmmaker and screenwriter’s jobs difficult as they must convey all necessary information within this short span of time. Unlike feature films, where there is ample time to develop characters scene by scene, short films demand conciseness and brevity. Tania Emery demonstrates her mastery of this concise language from the very first scenes, successfully conveying extensive information about the characters and their emotions with minimal references. She wastes no time, beginning the information flow from the opening credits. Managing the plot and unfolding this information is crucial because the smallest mistake can lead to disastrous results. Many filmmakers mistakenly believe that extending the film's duration can handle the compression and volume of information, whereas a short film succeeds by telling its story within the more or less conventional and global framework. Thus, in How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying, we encounter a superb example of pace in a short film. The filmmaker, with skillful use of an appropriate pace, creates a rhythm fitting the story. The filmmaker’s ability to determine a specific rhythm is one of the essential qualities that international festivals consider, as a destructive clash between the screenplay and the intended rhythm leads to an unfortunate outcome for the film. Additionally, if viewers find the story overly complicated or too empty without suitable visual equivalents and rhythm, they will abandon watching the film. Here, however, we face a visually pleasing, highly engaging, and structurally meticulous film.
The director, with intelligence and creativity, has managed to place objects precisely in the scene and understand the function of each object in its right place, and of course, uses the narrator to explain generalities that might take a long time to visually depict, thus guiding us clearly through the story and enticing the viewer to follow it. The filmmaker also knows how to create the atmosphere. One of the significant features of How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying is this understanding of atmosphere.
The camera slowly moves from the end of the room towards Nic’s sleeping face, and from this moment, the boundary between dream and reality blurs. The viewer is now in a state where it is unclear whether they are accompanying Nic in his dreams or witnessing his deteriorating real life.
In dreams, humans create their ideal world, build their desired characters, and shape their lives' rules regardless of natural laws; fantasy films allow us to visualize human dreams, hopes, and impossible desires and observe the imaginary world and dreams of the characters. Sometimes, they break the ceiling of imagination so much that they transcend threatening concepts like time and place. In any case, everything revolves around the possibility of imagination. In these stories, humans step from the limited real world into the limitless fantasy world, discovering deeper truths than they have ever seen or heard, and return to reality to live more comfortably than before. In How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying, we experience precisely this. The film introduces its numerous characters, artistically and subtly constructs their relationships, expands the intended crisis, and arranges the characters' motivations and actions regarding this crisis. The world created in the film is so believable that we accept fantasy as reality. We know we are watching a film, yet it is the filmmaker's art that makes us overlook this awareness and accept the film’s world.
Besides the screenplay, which is skillfully written, and the direction, which can be evaluated in various aspects, the performances are also very compelling. Above all, Henry Goodman's performance captivates our eyes. As the main character, he appears so strong and accurate that we deeply believe all the character’s motivations, frustrations, and fears. Following him, the other actors also play impactful and appropriate roles to the extent determined by the screenplay. Among them, Indra Ove stands out, forming a memorable duo with Henry Goodman, making all their shared scenes highly engaging.
The filmmaker not only adjusts the performances to fit the textual space but also adeptly arranges the environment to showcase the characters. Besides the atmosphere, which we mentioned, and the film’s tone that undergoes subtle yet significant changes from scene to scene, it’s important to note how the filmmaker creates an environment for the characters to perform optimally. Consider the office setting and the filmmaker’s meticulousness in arranging the room and its details. All these details help us understand the character better. It's often said that a good screenplay only covers half the journey, with the rest, including location selection, set design, and overall environment creation, being the other half, having a decisive impact on the outcome.
How to Succeed in Biscuits Without Really Trying is an intriguing and thoughtful film with a well-constructed and calculated structure, beautifully advancing its initial concept to a remarkable conclusion, promising an exciting future for its creator.
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