The Roald Dahl-shorts (Wes Anderson, Netflix, 2023)
The Swan, The Ratcatcher, Poison and Henry Sugar are part of a (mostly) terrific short film collection by Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox), based on stories by Roald Dahl, and starring a murderers row of talent, including (but not limited to) Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend, Dev Patel and Asa Jennings.
Let’s start with The Swan (17 min.) It’s about a small but smart boy, Peter Watson (Asa Jennings), who is taken captive by two other, bigger boys, who bully and even torture him.
Like with all good (psychological) horror movies, the cruelty is more poignant because it’s more suggested than seen.
Still, not too worry, I guess, as the story is told by the adult Peter (Rupert Friend), who seems to take everything in his step and whose spirit is at one point described as ‘unconquerable’.
The Swan, which cleverly mixes live-action with animation, has all the usual Anderson-trademarks, like a strong visual design, a love for symmetry and people talking straight into the camera, so much so that at times it feels more like a book reading than an actual moving movie, but Anderson’s visual style is so rich you can discover new things with each viewing.
Still, I understand why people can be a little bit put off by the filmmaker’s distinctive style. Over the last decade he’s perfected it to the extent that some of his more recent movies have become a little predictable.
Yet, he is a true master of his craft and if you like Wes Anderson, there’s every reason to see The Swan and the other Dahl-adaptations he has made for Netflix.
The Swan follows The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (39 minutes), which stars Benedict Cumberbatch (as Henry Sugar) and Ralph Fiennes (as Roald Dahl). It had its world premiere in Venice and was the first one to be released on Netflix, on Wednesday the 27th of September.
It tells the story of a very rich man, Henry Sugar, who learns to cheat at cards by seeing through things. But instead of making himself even richer he decides to use his power for good. It’s a wonderful, humane story that I hope you will check out for yourself.
The Swan itself is followed on Friday by Ratcatcher. Together with Poison (released on Saturday) they make up a neat 90-minute Dahl-omnibus.
Remembering that Anderson made one of his best movies with another Dahl-adaptation, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, I was already looking forward to seeing his complete Dahl-collection.
The Ratcatcher
And so far I haven’t been disappointed. The Ratcatcher may be a lesser known Dahl-story but it has a very intriguing concept. It’s about a professional Ratcatcher (Ralph Fiennes) who shows store owner Claud (Rupert Friend) that there are multiple ways to kill a rat, while the story is told by Claud’s neighbor, the editor (Richard Ayoade) of the Daily News Journal.
Like The Swan, this short film (17 minutes) shows you how dark Dahl’s imagination could be. Fiennes embodies the Rat Man very well, and so he should, because in his job ‘you have to be cleverer than a rat, and that’s saying something.’ In fact, as the Editor notes, ‘you almost have to become a rat yourself’. To which the Rat Man wholeheartedly agrees.
All in all wonderful addition to this Dahl-collection, in which (fortunately) no real rats were harmed.
Poison
Unfortunately, the last of the bunch, Poison, is perhaps the least interesting of the four. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a man, who discovers there is a snake in his bed and he has to remain completely still if he wants to survive.
Dev Patel plays his friend Woods, who goes to Doctor Ganderbai (Ben Kingsley) to get help.
It’s fun, and Cumberbatch is excellent, but you never get the feeling there is all that much at stake - especially when you consider that this is one of Dahl’s better known stories.
Still, I won’t complain too much - I guess we’ve just been spoiled by the first three!