''The One Note Man'' is a 2023 British short comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by George Siougas. It stars

Jason Watkins Jason Peter Watkins (born 28 October 1962) is an English stage, film and television actor. He played the lead role in the two-part drama ''The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies'', for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Bes ...

Louisa Clein Louisa Clein (born 6 July 1979) is a British actress, known for portraying the role of Maya Stepney in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale''. Life and career Clein was born in Poole, Dorset to Jewish parents, Peter and Channa Clein (née Salomon ...

, Crystal Yu, and Paul Barber, and is narrated by

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cu ...

Sam Claflin Samuel George Claflin (; born 27 June 1986) is a British actor. After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2009, he began his acting career on television and had his first film role as Philip Swift in '' Pirates of t ...

is one of the executive producers. Watkins plays a bassoonist, who has a strict routine that involves bicycling to an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

to play one note on his bassoon in an orchestra everyday. Aside from the narration, which is brief, the film has no dialogue.

Cast

Background

The film is an adaptation of H. M. Bateman's "The One-Note Man", which first appeared in '' Punch'' on December 14, 1921. In the cartoon, the One-Note Man is a

clarinetist The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

used it as an inspiration for the cymbal player in '' The Man Who Knew Too Much''.

Reception

Benjamin Franz of ''

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

'' gave it a score of 9 out of 10 and wrote, "This is a glorious short film. It’s quite possibly the most enchanting Christmas time fable I have witnessed in years." Chris Olson of ''UK Film Review'' gave it five stars and wrote, "Irresistibly charming and poignant, short film ''The One Note Man'' delivers a rousing tale of one man's stagnant existence being galvanized by a disruption to his own clockwork routine by a loose thread on his jacket."

Accolades

''The One Note Man'' won the Grand Prize for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2023

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the Newpor ...

. It won the Audience Award for Best Live-Action Short at the 2024 Palm Springs International ShortFest. It was also shortlisted for Best Live Action Short Film at the

96th Academy Awards The 96th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonl ...

, but was not nominated.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:One Note Man 2023 short films British comedy-drama short films