Deepness Of The Fry
2019 · 4m · Denmark
Directed by August "Poul" Niclasen
Genres: comedy, essay film, experimental
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, darkly comic
An absurd existential crisis disguised as a collage film. In a world where everything has already been said, felt and done, can anyone truly be unique — and is thinking about it too much really a good idea?
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A collage film that actually *means* something — Niclasen takes the exhaustion of originality and turns it into comedy rather than whining, which is the move most experimental shorts are too earnest to pull off. The absurdist frame lets him ask an annoying question without becoming annoying himself.
Situated squarely in the essay-film tradition yet resisting its typical melancholy; the formal choice to use collage as philosophical argument rather than mere aesthetic decoration shows real awareness of precedent. A considered piece that knows exactly what it's inheriting.
The collage *itself* is the decision that unlocks the whole thing — instead of staging the existential crisis, Niclasen lets found materials and their juxtaposition *be* the argument about whether anything new is possible. That compression of form and content on a 4-minute budget is what makes it work.