Borderline (2005)

• 68%
• 2005
• Alex Chandon

A walk on the thin borderline between reality and imagination. London cityscape that is real and yet impossible. Alex Chandon turns London upside-down and inside out in this ingenious M. C. Escher-inspired short. Pedestrians stroll under a watery sky as the Thames stretches across the heavens, whilst cars drive along the roof of Waterloo Bridge as book buyers browse oblivious below. The South Bank features prominently in delightfully askew visions, with deranged shots of the National Theatre and the Queen Elizabeth Hall undercroft (the haven for skateboarders, seen here leaping into oblivion). The Hayward Gallery, St. Martin in the Fields and many other London landmarks are also surreally readjusted. The ominous music by the Dark Poets and the destructive images suggest that this film should be unsettling, but in fact the effect is amusing rather than disquieting, and the chief pleasure of this short is in adjusting one's perspective to recognise the famous locations.