Reviews
Shot in a lush, cinematic style, this slight little story is packed
with telling glances and suggestive situations, even as it keeps
any overt explanations of the plot hidden from us. It centres on
a restaurant chef (Firth) who writes a strong letter to his sous
chef (Fearon), then watches him closely all day, waiting for him
to read it. As the hours pass, the chef becomes obsessed with
how the sous chef interacts with two younger workers in the
kitchen (Anderson and Steventon).It's a mixture of flirtation
and hints of something bigger that makes everything boil over.
Filmmaker Mair cleverly tells us everything we need to know
through visual clues; it's subtext-o-rama as these people kneed,
chop and whisk, while we become increasingly anxious to see
what's up between them. This cleverly echoes the chef's own
anxiety, and with few words, the film has an extremely moving
final act. A lovely little film.
Rich Cline, London's Shadows on the Wall film review
The Chef's Letter is definitely one of the best English-language
shorts of the year. In the pitch-perfect short film form, it tells an
intriguing story about a strange love triangle. Sure directing hand,
excellent photography with frequent but effective use of crooked
angles and close-ups, and beautiful original music makes it a
must-have for any short film festival.
Vladan Petkovic, Screen International
In one afternoon hour I saw such a range of styles and loved
The Chef's Letter by Sybil Mair, beautifully filmed in an oblique
style of a married chef on his birthday, deciding to leave his wife
and child for a colleague in the kitchen . . . Lots of visual
understatement . . .
Liam Murphy in the Munster Express at the Waterford Film
Festival in Ireland
An exquisitely made and very human story; the selection committee
were impressed by the sophistication of your technique, showing in
beautifully crafted visual style a depth of emotion.
Gold Lion Film Festival
I appreciated the craftsmanship that went into The Chef's Letter.
I loved the lead actor's ability to convey much of the story with just
his eyes and expression. How the rest of the story is told primarily
without words. Judicious use of music, and mostly ambient sound,
very good cinematography.
Anonymous screener, film festival
very good, well structured and with a good narrative ambiguity and
misdirection . . . tightly shot and edited, nice camerawork too.
Mike Davies, Film Reviewer, The Birmingham Post
The Chef's Letter was featured in the July 2008 issue of the Kodak
magazine Vision. You can read the article here.
Shot in a lush, cinematic style, this slight little story is packed
with telling glances and suggestive situations, even as it keeps
any overt explanations of the plot hidden from us. It centres on
a restaurant chef (Firth) who writes a strong letter to his sous
chef (Fearon), then watches him closely all day, waiting for him
to read it. As the hours pass, the chef becomes obsessed with
how the sous chef interacts with two younger workers in the
kitchen (Anderson and Steventon).It's a mixture of flirtation
and hints of something bigger that makes everything boil over.
Filmmaker Mair cleverly tells us everything we need to know
through visual clues; it's subtext-o-rama as these people kneed,
chop and whisk, while we become increasingly anxious to see
what's up between them. This cleverly echoes the chef's own
anxiety, and with few words, the film has an extremely moving
final act. A lovely little film.
Rich Cline, London's Shadows on the Wall film review
The Chef's Letter is definitely one of the best English-language
shorts of the year. In the pitch-perfect short film form, it tells an
intriguing story about a strange love triangle. Sure directing hand,
excellent photography with frequent but effective use of crooked
angles and close-ups, and beautiful original music makes it a
must-have for any short film festival.
Vladan Petkovic, Screen International
In one afternoon hour I saw such a range of styles and loved
The Chef's Letter by Sybil Mair, beautifully filmed in an oblique
style of a married chef on his birthday, deciding to leave his wife
and child for a colleague in the kitchen . . . Lots of visual
understatement . . .
Liam Murphy in the Munster Express at the Waterford Film
Festival in Ireland
An exquisitely made and very human story; the selection committee
were impressed by the sophistication of your technique, showing in
beautifully crafted visual style a depth of emotion.
Gold Lion Film Festival
I appreciated the craftsmanship that went into The Chef's Letter.
I loved the lead actor's ability to convey much of the story with just
his eyes and expression. How the rest of the story is told primarily
without words. Judicious use of music, and mostly ambient sound,
very good cinematography.
Anonymous screener, film festival
very good, well structured and with a good narrative ambiguity and
misdirection . . . tightly shot and edited, nice camerawork too.
Mike Davies, Film Reviewer, The Birmingham Post
The Chef's Letter was featured in the July 2008 issue of the Kodak
magazine Vision. You can read the article here.
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