The Thousand Steps Review from Filmiracle Productions!

Chris Milewski is a quiet little auteur working steadily in the corner of the underground on short films that capture the mood of the old school. Originally, as I stated in a prior review, he as good as “out Italians the Italians” with his glorious odes to the golden era of Italian chillers such as Violets Bloom at an Empty Grave (see review here) and Phantoms of the Fog (see review here) Then he tried his hand at taking his talents further back in time, for the wonderfully haunting, Garden of Souls (see review here) wherein he grabbed the lost artform of silent cinema and presented a delicacy for those with a love for such things.

Thus continues this journey down the celluloid time tunnel with The Thousand Steps. We meet Frederick, a rich heir to his father’s estate, sitting and laughing at a newspaper article in which a man was so poor he had to steal. Then his face falls as he sees the market has crashed. To show what an absolute cad he is, he finds a young lady taking flowers upon his estate. She asks his forgiveness for they are for a grave. He humiliates her and she runs away, to which he throws the flowers down with scorn.

As we see, however, the sands of time are unkind to Frederick, for following the collapse of the market, he finds himself soon afterwards homeless and almost penniless, but for two coins in his pocket. Looking for work, he’s cast away by an apple-eating boss who gives him the apple core to munch on.

Hearing church bells, his soul vacates his body and he follows them. Frederick meets a priest who takes his coins off him but tells him of the thousand steps he must descend over yonder because in the forest he may find what he seeks. The priest is a total money-grubbing dickhead who’d take the last nickel off a homeless man.

Doubtful he’s going to need the coins anyhow, he soon begins his descent down the thousand steps and to whatever awaits him below.

I’ve heard since about folks really picking at little technicalities, such as the cut of a suit being too modern for the era it was supposed to be. Hold up, I’d rather not be so picky and aim at the fact Ryan Capizzi as Frederick is draining. Sorry, but he doesn’t seem to belong in a film, let alone one like this where you must act with your expressions and your body language more than words. He is stiff and bland, wherein the rest of the cast (especially the apple chomping boss) do look and act like they’ve walked around the 1920s film world for quite some time. Ryan has nothing about him, so he stands out terribly. He has three expressions throughout: frowning, squinting and… erm, errr… just two expressions, I guess. Oh, and he laughs once, sorry, I missed that one.

The Thousand Steps is no Garden of Souls, to be honest. That earlier work captured almost every ingredient needed in a silent film. That being said, the idea and imagination are purely a concept of early cinema. The locations are lush and wonderfully chosen. If you head over to IMDb, there’s a bit of trivia on this subject. All said and done, it’s an undemanding fifteen minutes spent, but truthfully, I’d happily watch Garden of Souls again rather than sit through The Thousand Steps again.

MOVIE

Overall Score 3

// Join our awesome newsletter! * You can also place any other content here

The Thousand Steps Review from Filmiracle Productions!

About The Author