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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