This month’s magathèque comes straight from my heart, and for that reason I think it is no coincidence that it contains some of the best microcinema ever to be committed to film. This is really a collection of titans and even includes two that caught the eye of the Oscar judging panel.

Our theme is travel. I doubt I am the only one among you who has spent too much time on planes, trains and in cars in recent weeks – it is alas one of the perils of the holiday season. It’s rather ironic since as I type this, I’m stranded in my family home on the top of a hill that we can get neither up nor down in any efficient mode of transport…

Join me for a journey that begins with the theme of preparing to travel, followed by its perils and joys respectively.

Preparing to travel

The lunch date – Adam Davidson

Every few years a film student directs a short so phenomenal that he seals his place in history even if he never subsequently directs a feature to equal its greatness. Indeed, Davidson has yet to blow our socks off in the long form, having established himself as a reputable TV director, complemented by a number of Tony Award-winning Broadway credits. But I wait patiently. This Oscar-winning short film from 1989 is an immaculately crafted tale of urban morality that merits watching again and again and again.

Solkatten – Stina Bergman

Translating from the Swedish as Reflections of the Sun, this non-dialogue short proves that the subtle combination of a pocket watch, sunlight, two strangers’ desires a little risqué behaviour, can be explosive.

Bad travel

Spider – Nash Edgerton

Multi-talented Australian stuntman/actor/director Nash Edgerton delivered another outstanding tale in 2007 with Spider, which features the director as the male lead. This is the perfect tool to prove once and for all to your boyfriend that he should never buy you gifts from a petrol station.

J’attendrai le suivant - Philippe Orreindy

This 2002 Oscar-nominee for best live action short serves as a good warning about opening one’s heart to anyone on the underground. The phrase ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ may be a well-worn cliché, but the finale of this film makes you realise that it’s a most deserving recipient of this sentiment.

Alice et Moi – Micha Wald

Poor, poor Simon. A modern-day St Sebastian, ‘Alice et Moi’ sees him assaulted by arrows of pain and distress from all angles during a painful car journey with his interfering Aunt Mala and her two friends. Trying to stop his relationship with dancer Alice from crumbling during a series of interspersed phonecalls, his passengers prove to be back seat drivers of the couple’s tragic destiny as well as the car, which in turn drives Simon to the depths of despair, much to our amusement.

Good travel

Merci! – Christine Rabette

This is a little buried treasure which I’ve overheard described as the ‘best short film ever’ by more than one programmer in my time. Although surrounded by people – often uncomfortably so – a train can be such an anonymous place. But just once in a while something comic or tragic serves to bring us all together. Reassuringly, swine flu is not the only contagious bug you risk catching in a carriage.