Don't let me scare you off, though, everything looks fucking AMAZING. I watched Maska and Anamorphosis to sample it. Maska is a revelation in HD with the full range of color (I'm ecstatic to see where they take this in Unmistaken Hands; starting with In Absentia they've done things with light that I didn't even know were possible, let alone in stop-motion), and Anamorphosis (chosen since we've just started in on Hans Holbein in one of my classes) looks brand-new despite being over 20 years old and is bookended with a clever detail I'd literally never been able to see before- the broken lute string in Holbein's The Ambassadors is made into an actual wire that extrudes from the surface of the painting.
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Sunday, 29 November 2015 00:12 (eight years ago) link
I really wish there were more opportunities to see this stuff for animators who don't want to resort to vimeo. I'd like to see Unmistaken Hands. Does netflix do much short animation?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 29 November 2015 15:42 (eight years ago) link
Watched the BFI Jan Svankmajer collection. Never been into his work that much. There's a mundane yuckiness I can't get into but still admire his talent. I liked Don Juan, I thought it was the most visually satisfying one, the ghost with his face cut off and candles embedded in his head was a good design. Castle Of Otranto, Down To The Cellar (the girl in the dark corridor, scary adults and black cat) and the first part of Dimensions Of Dialogue (the materials eating each other then vomiting into new forms) were all impressive.
I've seen the feature length Little Otik and that's gross in a few ways.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 20 December 2015 17:54 (eight years ago) link
A big big thankyou to Dave Fischer for recommending Son Of The White Mare. It's one of the best films I've seen this year and really deserves a Criterion and Eureka dvd. There's just so much happening visually that it becomes a very rich experience. Starting out it seems like a fairy tale but it becomes a strange heroic fantasy myth. I urge you all to see it.
Marcell Jankovics has a bunch of films on youtube, which I'm looking forward to but there's also a lot of interviews with him. He appears to be quite famous in Hungary.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 27 December 2015 00:21 (eight years ago) link
Watched the first Jankovics feature film Johnny Corncob, based on an epic poem by Sándor Petőfi. Another heroic fantasy but less outlandish and psychedelic than Son Of The White Mare (but so are most things), but still very imaginative. Contains some racial caricatures of Indians.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 27 December 2015 20:16 (eight years ago) link
Got the most recent Jankovics film on dvd, Tragedy Of Man, a Christian voyage through history and the future. It's not as consistently good looking as the other films but it goes through a much bigger array of art styles and its full of constantly changing symbolist images. The dialogue also is so full of meaning that it's hard to keep up with, especially in subtitles.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 28 March 2016 12:38 (eight years ago) link
april and the extraordinary world (based on comix by Jacques Tardi) just opened in NYC, looks like tintin via miyazakiwill try to see this weekhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FP0lzeCJEs
― i believe that (s)he is sincere (forksclovetofu), Monday, 28 March 2016 14:37 (eight years ago) link
Trying to remember an animated film, art house (?), black and white, maybe, foreign. I remember a man climbing a building, and there were lots of men, all doing the same thing in a line. Maybe something to do with clocks or gears? Anyone know what I'm thinking of?
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Sunday, 12 June 2016 11:37 (seven years ago) link
There was no speech or narration, I think.
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Sunday, 12 June 2016 11:39 (seven years ago) link
thief and the cobbler pencil tests?
― kind of lolth but mostly strahd (los blue jeans), Monday, 13 June 2016 04:49 (seven years ago) link
BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING
Watched this last night, been meaning to see it for years, it's very beautiful and quite sad. It's a lot like stop motion from the 70s for children but with a goth touch. In the countryside humanoid birds with pig ears that play nice flute music, humanoid mice ride turtles, a humanoid toad magician, flowers with human faces and a couple of other odd creatures. Mostly concerns a doll that is used like an oven to give birth to things, one of the humanoid mice falls in love with the doll. On the dvd there's two short films that share a lot of the same ideas, in fact most of what Christiane Cegavske does seems to feature at least something seen in Blood Tea And Red String.
Cegavske is working on the sequel (second part of a trilogy), planned for 2022 (that's dedication).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNNbIiFsPzk
http://christianecegavske.com/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 14 August 2016 17:44 (seven years ago) link
Inner Sanctums - Quay Brothers: The Collected Animated Films 1979 - 2013 (Blu-ray)Films by The Quay BrothersSince the late 1970s, the identical twin Quay Brothers have made a unique contribution to animation in general and the puppet film in particular. Filtering arcane visual, literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film rivets the attention through hypnotic control of décor, camera, lighting, music and movement, evoking half-remembered dreams, fascinating and yet deeply unsettling in turn.This comprehensive two-disc set provides an overview of the Quays' career, containing twenty-four of their short films - three UK premieres and five world premieres - and also includes Christopher Nolan's new short documentary, Quay (2015), revealing the inner workings of the brothers studio.The Films:Nocturna Artificialia (1979)The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984)This Unnameable Little Broom (1985)Street of Crocodiles (1986)Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988)Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988)Ex-Voto (1989)The Comb (1990)Anamorphosis (1991)The Calligrapher (Parts I, II, III) (1991)Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992)Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods (1993)Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1994)In Absentia (2000)The Phantom Museum (2003)Songs for Dead Children (2003)Eurydice, She So Beloved (2007)Alice in Not so Wonderland (2007)Kinoteka Ident (2008)Inventorium of Traces (2009)Wonderwood for Comme des Garçons (2010)Maska (2010)Through the Weeping Glass (2011)Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013)Special featuresNewly remastered presentationsIntroduction by the Quay Brothers (2006, 20 mins)Quay (2015, 8 mins): a film by Christopher NolanQuay Brothers audio commentaries for This Unnameable Little Broom, Street of Crocodiles, Stille Nacht l, Stille Nacht ll, Stille Nacht lll and In AbsentiaThe Falls (excerpt) (1980, 5 mins)BFI Distribution ident (1991, 30 secs)The Summit (1995, 12 mins)No Bones About It! Quay Brothers (2010, 12 mins)Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers (2013, 31 mins)Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. trailer (2 mins)Extensive booklet containing Michael Brooke's 'A Quays Dictionary' (updated) and the 2013 dialogue 'On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets'UK | 1979-2013 | colour, and black and white | English language | 305 minutes | Various original aspect ratios | BD50 x 2 | 1080p | 24fps | PCM audio (48kHz/24-bit) | Cert 15 | Region BReview'To enter the impossible, haunted night of a Quay Brothers film is to become complicit in one of the most perverse and obsessive acts of cinema' --Michael Atkinson, Film Comment'Wonderful, brilliant stuff' --Terry Gilliam'One of art's most ingenious and visionary collaborations' --Artforum
Since the late 1970s, the identical twin Quay Brothers have made a unique contribution to animation in general and the puppet film in particular. Filtering arcane visual, literary, musical, cinematic and philosophical influences through their own utterly distinctive sensibility, each Quay film rivets the attention through hypnotic control of décor, camera, lighting, music and movement, evoking half-remembered dreams, fascinating and yet deeply unsettling in turn.
This comprehensive two-disc set provides an overview of the Quays' career, containing twenty-four of their short films - three UK premieres and five world premieres - and also includes Christopher Nolan's new short documentary, Quay (2015), revealing the inner workings of the brothers studio.
The Films:Nocturna Artificialia (1979)The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984)This Unnameable Little Broom (1985)Street of Crocodiles (1986)Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1988)Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988)Ex-Voto (1989)The Comb (1990)Anamorphosis (1991)The Calligrapher (Parts I, II, III) (1991)Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992)Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods (1993)Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1994)In Absentia (2000)The Phantom Museum (2003)Songs for Dead Children (2003)Eurydice, She So Beloved (2007)Alice in Not so Wonderland (2007)Kinoteka Ident (2008)Inventorium of Traces (2009)Wonderwood for Comme des Garçons (2010)Maska (2010)Through the Weeping Glass (2011)Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013)Special features
Newly remastered presentationsIntroduction by the Quay Brothers (2006, 20 mins)Quay (2015, 8 mins): a film by Christopher NolanQuay Brothers audio commentaries for This Unnameable Little Broom, Street of Crocodiles, Stille Nacht l, Stille Nacht ll, Stille Nacht lll and In AbsentiaThe Falls (excerpt) (1980, 5 mins)BFI Distribution ident (1991, 30 secs)The Summit (1995, 12 mins)No Bones About It! Quay Brothers (2010, 12 mins)Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers (2013, 31 mins)Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. trailer (2 mins)Extensive booklet containing Michael Brooke's 'A Quays Dictionary' (updated) and the 2013 dialogue 'On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets'UK | 1979-2013 | colour, and black and white | English language | 305 minutes | Various original aspect ratios | BD50 x 2 | 1080p | 24fps | PCM audio (48kHz/24-bit) | Cert 15 | Region B
Review'To enter the impossible, haunted night of a Quay Brothers film is to become complicit in one of the most perverse and obsessive acts of cinema' --Michael Atkinson, Film Comment
'Wonderful, brilliant stuff' --Terry Gilliam
'One of art's most ingenious and visionary collaborations' --Artforum
The last collection went up to 2003, so this should be worth it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 3 November 2016 16:14 (seven years ago) link
april and the extraordinary world was quite alright
― akm, Thursday, 3 November 2016 22:53 (seven years ago) link
I have the older Quay brothers collection, but I guess I'll have to try to afford this one too...
― Eallach mhór an duine leisg (dowd), Friday, 4 November 2016 01:34 (seven years ago) link
it's only 11 pounds on amazon.couk so it's not a massive investment
― akm, Friday, 4 November 2016 02:27 (seven years ago) link
Cool.
― Eallach mhór an duine leisg (dowd), Friday, 4 November 2016 07:13 (seven years ago) link
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/the-book-of-the-dead/
I watched Kawamoto's Book Of The Dead. I found it very dry and difficult to pay attention and follow, but I could enjoy things about it a bit. Stop motion puppets.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 30 November 2016 01:05 (seven years ago) link
that looks cool, I always liked the puppet storybooks:
http://modernkiddo.com/vintage-bookshelf-rocketship-to-the-moon/
― los blue jeans, Wednesday, 30 November 2016 02:08 (seven years ago) link
I recently came across The Mill At Calder's End and fell in love with Kevin McTurk's work, even if it is a bit (deliberately?) clunky in places. The Narrative Of Victor Karloch is great as well.
http://www.fanboy-confidential.com/articles/9815/
― Horizontal Superman is invulnerable (aldo), Wednesday, 30 November 2016 10:21 (seven years ago) link
That looks awesome thankyou, I just watched some clips and I must get the disc collection.http://www.thespiritcabinet.com/#thespiritcabinethttps://vimeo.com/user3963984/videos
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 30 November 2016 19:32 (seven years ago) link
Got the dvd collection The Exquisite Short Films Of Kihachiro Kawamoto. It's 7 films from 1968 to 1979. I don't know why they stopped there, Kimstim also released his last film Book Of The Dead but they could have filled another disc with everything inbetween. I'm not that eager to see the rest but it would have been nice.
I didn't like some of the earliest ones much. Even though he's best known for the stop motion puppets I liked the two films with drawn and painted cutouts most. Much like when I was watching Book Of Dead, I gave up trying to understand early and just zoned out, but I found it more pleasant with these. One short is based on a Kobo Abe story and another has Toru Takemitsu music.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 25 December 2016 04:24 (seven years ago) link
New Masaaki Yuasa joint coming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5W9eHDxBDc
― You guys are caterpillar (Telephone thing), Wednesday, 25 January 2017 16:32 (seven years ago) link
Spent most of Kubo and the Two Strings thinking it was an above-average CGI movie with a nice japanese setting. then watched the extras and it was all stop motion, including an 18ft skeleton...
(should've remembered having my mind blown by the wardrobe dept on Coraline knitting all her jumpers and gloves)
― koogs, Wednesday, 25 January 2017 21:37 (seven years ago) link
Just got around to seeing The Boy and the Beast. Ghibli-level imo
― Nhex, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 23:50 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, that one is great. One of those films that are about five times better than it needed to be. Towards the end I was wondering if they were setting up a franchise, as more and more stuff started happening, but they tied it all together really well.
Mamoru Hosada in general is really good.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 28 February 2017 23:57 (seven years ago) link
i really liked The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, should really catch up on his other films
― Nhex, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 00:04 (seven years ago) link
Those two are probably his best, but check out his other ones as well. I really like the way he combines worlds and art styles.
Your Name is getting Danish premiere this May. As it's on it's way to become the most succesful animated film ever, it's probably as mainstream as it comes, but I'm still really excited!
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 1 March 2017 00:17 (seven years ago) link
So Your Name is pretty much a game-changer. I could see it be almost as important as Spirited Away in widening the idea of what anime can be in the west. It's not quite that good, but what is?
It was kinda funny to me that the press material called Shinkai the new Mamoru Hosada. Well, he will probably overshadow Hosada, at least in the west, though they are quite alike, and the film is a lot like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in a way.
― Frederik B, Monday, 6 March 2017 11:19 (seven years ago) link
I had much higher expectations for Kubo & The Two Strings. It's no Book Of Life, I'll tell ya.
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 7 March 2017 04:23 (seven years ago) link
Got the Spirit Cabinet disc with The Mill At Calder's End and The Narrative Of Victor Karloch. The stories aren't very interesting, they're fairly nice exercises in Victorian ghost horror style. The puppets are very impressive, there's a little bit of unnecessary computer facial animation. Barbara Steele, Elijah Wood, Christopher Lloyd and some others lend their voices and likenesses for the puppets. I look forward to what this team does in the future.
I watched the second disc of Quay Brothers - Inner Sanctums (I've seen everything on the first disc on the earlier compilation). I'm less fond of the museum documentaries, which can be a little too slow but their regular puppet stories are still some of the most beautiful and mysterious films being made, some of them are literary adaptations. The short Christopher Nolan documentary is really just the Quay Brothers giving a tour of their amazing storage room.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 12 March 2017 12:23 (seven years ago) link
re mamoru hosada - summer wars is worth watching. it's a little goofy at times but is visually great and overall worth checking out.
― art, Sunday, 12 March 2017 12:54 (seven years ago) link
http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2017/04/04/women-in-british-animation-petra-freeman/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 16 May 2017 21:54 (seven years ago) link
enjoyed the Red Turtle. Very beautiful, very slow-moving, but charming and thought-provoking.
― Shat Parp (dog latin), Tuesday, 30 May 2017 13:19 (six years ago) link
Kevin McTurk's series of samurai horror https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/935772123/the-haunted-swordsman-a-ghost-story-puppet-film?ref=creator_nav
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 18 September 2017 19:45 (six years ago) link
Ferenc Cako's sand animation is really good.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 2 October 2017 21:49 (six years ago) link
https://youtu.be/QAJGRGYxc98
― Woon... Doopee Time (FlopsyDuck), Thursday, 30 November 2017 05:19 (six years ago) link
Jumping Joan by Petra Freemanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KooxsCp_52I
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 7 April 2018 21:54 (six years ago) link
Forgot about this thread. A few I've been enjoying recently:
Not at all new, but I suspect that The Log Driver's Waltz, a National Film Board clip set to a delightful Kate & Anna McGarrigle rendition of a classic Canadian folk song, isn't that well known outside of Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8
More recently (and still in Canada), I really liked Dam! The Story of Kit the Beaver, an admittedly Disney-esque story made as a collaboration with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who have performed the score live as an accompaniment to the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKcEwCxoxYY&t=2s
I also thought the recent Best Animated Short nominee Revolting Rhymes (based on Roald Dahl) was pretty great. Of course, it lost the Oscar to that stupid Kobe Bryant thing.
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Saturday, 7 April 2018 22:44 (six years ago) link
Let me try Dam! The Story of Kit the Beaver again
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Saturday, 7 April 2018 22:47 (six years ago) link
UGH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKcEwCxoxYY&t
― Dangleballs and the Ballerina (cryptosicko), Saturday, 7 April 2018 22:48 (six years ago) link
anyway, its on YouTube
Anyone have opinions on the Thunderbean Animation DVD/blu-ray label? They're doing a lot of really early animation. Apparently some of their stuff is, like, DVD-R w/ no cover art though, and fuck that.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 9 April 2018 15:05 (six years ago) link
Recently watched a 1990 version of Quest For Olwen, Russian animated for welsh television. Very nice style.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 14 April 2018 14:05 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QB6EsHAih8
― Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Saturday, 14 April 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link
This by Ideya Garanina is the most beautiful animation I've ever seen and it wasn't available when I started this thread.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzQSxFMyYohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fm8Xn_GNHQ
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 15 April 2018 13:13 (six years ago) link
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, April 9, 2018 5:05 PM (one week ago)
I would say that they do have high quality but they work very slow. I wouldn't mind owning a blu-ray of Flip the Frog restored but that project has had no updates in forever.
― He said captain, I said wot (FlopsyDuck), Monday, 16 April 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
Cool, will check some of their stuff out. My backlog of stuff to watch means all I have is time, anyway.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 17 April 2018 10:55 (six years ago) link
Saw a couple films circa 1950 by Czech master Jiri Trnka today. This retro will tour after NYC, apparently.
https://www.filmlinc.org/series/the-puppet-master-the-complete-jiri-trnka/#films
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 25 April 2018 04:36 (six years ago) link
I was just about to post Alison De Vere's The Black Dog, which I came across via Twitter this morning and was blown away by, only to see it upthread. Fantastic film. Been watching a lot of British animated shorts today, Channel 4 had a good thing going for a while there.
I really like this one too, despite the pretty dubious subject matter (and the very dubious Budd Hopkins).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_UgJFZSRec
― Duane Barry, Sunday, 20 May 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link
odd trailer for Tezuka's Cleopatra, Tomita soundtrackhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4muZbgxsYalso see the trailer for Tezuka's 1001 Nights featuring a man pleasuring a woman by kick-grazing her bottom.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 2 June 2018 22:09 (five years ago) link