Title: Thanks to Meet You!
Year: 2025
Country: U.K.
Language: English
Awards
From producers Richard Hunter and Frederica Schivello comes this humorous sneak peek into the self-made outcome of five “yes” men.
These shallow and hollow people have found themselves in the centre of a dance floor in an empty nightclub.
Given the nature of the characters or lack of character of these people, the Director, Richard Hunter, has created a perfect stage for this unending vignette to play out; a mediocre, empty nightclub, a little tacky but not too shabby.
These doomed souls’ end of story, opens with one character sound-testing a microphone. He has lost vocabulary and through sound is trying to find words. The first sounds which develop into words, are ‘MeMeMe’. He meanders off camera to another room which is where he finds another full word; ‘Help Help help’. He wanders back to the stage and seems to sense what is happening and finds the word ‘Fuck Fuck Fuck’.
Joining four people standing in a circle on a dance floor, all attired in suits and ties, it becomes obvious there is no substance to their conversation or in them. No one disagrees with the apparent leader and for the most part with each other. They have childish rules of behaviour and punishments which they don’t follow. They smarmily applaud and support each other revealing their lack of integrity and character as they rationalise their bad acts.
This is reminiscent of Dante’s chambers on the edge of hell. The special place for those who have never taken a stand and therefore occupy the “mouth of the vestibule of hell” as they are undeserving of Heaven and Hell won’t have them. They are stuck in a limbo of their own making.
If you ever wonder where The Merchants Of Death, of Paul Reitman’s 2005 film “Thank -you for Smoking” ended up, I think you will find them across the threshold and one floor down.
Although this is a timeless commentary, it seems to be particularly suited to our time with the multitude of sycophantic people surrounding the naked “ wanna be” emperor living to the south of us.
I highly recommend this wonderful short!
