From: emru@CAM.ORG (Emru Townsend)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime,rec.arts.animation,alt.tv.liquid-tv
Subject: More Hiroshima '92 stuff
Date: 23 Jan 93 18:55:02 GMT
Organization: MegaCorp Central Complex

And now, part two of our program...
 
One week after our last reviewed showing, the Cinematheque Quebecoise
showed the second part of their Hiroshima '92 program.  I'm not going to
bother with any preamble.
 
MTV WORLD PROBLEMS, WORLD SOLUTIONS: THINK (Paul and Menno de Nooijer,
The Netherlands, 36 secs; pixellation):  Another entry in MTV's
collection of thirty-second shorts on the environment.  This is typical
of Paul de Nooijer's work so far: wacko, cartoon-like color schemes, and
some signs to give us messages.  I dunno, his stuff is well done, but
it's so similar in style that it gets tedious in short order.
 
THE BOY AND THE LITTLE RACCOON (Tadahito Mochinaga, Japan, 13 mins;
stop-motion):  This is quite a cute tale, and easy to understand despite
being completely in Japanese.  A little girl raccoon encounters a bunch
of human kids.  After a little pestering, her mother transforms her into
a cute little girl.  (How the heck should I know how?  I just watch
them.)  She then goes out and explores the world of humans.  At times
too sugary for words, the film is at least entertaining, since the whole
film takes place on a small revolving set with a stationary background,
presenting the viewer with headache-inducing pseudo-parallax.
 
SABINA (Katherine Li, Canada, 7 mins; colored pencil):  Described as "a
visual poem inspired by the work of Anais Nin", this film is dedicated
to Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.  This is by no means a
narrative; images of woman swirl and metamorphose.  It's quite nice to
watch, with a pleasant soundtrack.  Images and themes: women, water,
flight, women, water, light, women, and water.  There are worse ways to
spend seven minutes.
 
LES EFFACEURS (Gerald Frydman, Belgium, 7 mins; cutout):  In a bizarre,
surreal landscape, people do their best to erase their faces by scraping
at them with their arms or against rough surfaces.  One man can't erase
his face, no matter how hard he tries.  Quite funny, though it could
have withstood some more time in the editing room.
 
HOTEL E (Priit Parn, Estonia, 30 mins; cel):  Welcome to art film hell. 
First, it's a typically long and dreary Eastern European tale about how
horrid life is there, and how easy the rest of Europe has it.  Fine. 
But the same story could have been told in fifteen minutes!  If Priit
Parn can get a half-hour cel-animated film together in Estonia and I
can't scrape up the cash for a 30-second short, I really don't see what
he's complaining about.  Gripes aside -- this film is at turns morbid
and funny, and it's usually pretty interesting to watch.  But after
about twenty minutes we were gripping the arm rests tightly enough to
have ripped them out.
 
LES SAISONS QUATRE A QUATRE (Daniel Suter, Switzerland, 2 mins; pencil):
This has been shown at one of the Expanded or Mike & Spike festivals
before.  A man rides his bicycle to a particular tree, and photographs
it.  Most of the animation takes place on a calendar notepad, where each
frame is drawn on a separate day.  A very pleasant film, and a great
break after HOTEL E.
 
CANFILM (Zlatin Kirolov Radev, Bulgaria, 18 mins; stop-motion):  This
has been shown at one of the Expanded or Mike & Spike festivals before,
and when I first saw it I considered it to be the first inkling that the
Eastern Europeans were lightening up a bit when making social commentary
animated films.  This is my third time seeing this short, and I enjoyed
it more than the first two times.  In a world populated by
anthropomorphic cans, various leaders come and go as they bid for
power, and hold the masses in their thrall.  Very nice work.
 
THE HUNTER (Mikhail Aldashin, Russian, 4 mins; cel):  This was in one of
the other festivals before.  A primitive hunter does his best to use
disguises to hunt ostriches, elephants, and lions -- until one of his
disguises works too well.  Pretty funny.
 
THE WRONG TYPE (Candy Guard, Great Britain, 4 mins; colored pencil): 
This is another short that's been through one of the other festivals
before.  As usual, Candy Guard's neurotic character (whose name escapes
me at the moment) is trying to cope.  This time, she tries to become a
temp, without much success.  It's funny, but it lacks something, and I
can't quite put my finger on it.
 
LA COURSE A L'ABIME (Georges Schwizgebel, Switzerland, 4 mins; paint on
glass):  Scenes from various aspects of Swiss life, past and present,
metamorphose into one another, until they form one very large collage. 
Visually stunning, it's all the more impressive when you realize that
this is all being done on one piece of glass.
 
CHOREOGRAPHY FOR A COPY MACHINE (Chel White, USA, 3 mins; photocopied
images):  This has been through one of the festivals.  People, body
parts, and various items are animated via a photocopier, using some of
the unique distortions that a photocopier does best.  Very nicely
choreographed.  I'm pretty sure this was conceived one night when
someone was photocopying rude bits of their anatomy at the office...
 
THE VACUUM (Tim Rolt, Great Britain, 11 mins; pixellation):  Um.  Poor
Colin is sucked into a vacuum cleaner, and spends quite some time inside
until he is released in a rather bizarre fashion.  Weird characters and
some weird sets.  Frightening mama vacuum.
 
THE MILL (Petra Freeman, Great Britain, 8 mins; paint on glass):  Ummmm,
I don't remember this one.
 
COLORS (Tom Renoldner, Austria, 4 mins; paint on tracing paper): 
Aaargh!  It's the return of the art film!  Shapes metamorphose, syncing
with a really obnoxious tone, interrupted by a regularly occuring beep. 
If it had been at the beginning of the program, it would have been
tolerable, but as it was, it was all we could do to keep poor Marc
sedated.  Lord knows I wanted to scream.
 
BALLOON (Ken Lidster, Great Britain, 12 mins; stop-motion, cel,
pencil/ink):  This has been in at least two other festivals.  If you
haven't seen it by now, you're not getting out enough.  This fantastic
short tells the tale of a little girl, her sentient & sapient red
balloon, and the dirty dirty bad guy who wants to steal the balloon
away.  The animation is top-notch, the designs are brilliant -- just
wait until you see the balloon torture chamber -- and that bad guy falls
into my top ten.  "Huzzah!"
 

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