A surrealistic montage of pop culture that attacks the followers of the genre.
Social & External
In Adieu bipède (1987), Hébert turned to performance, using the scratching technique for the scenes with dancing and music. He used the same technique in La Lettre d'amour (1988).
The villagers one day are surprised by a strange phenomenon - a high embankment begins to form all over the area. Like in a mole pit, the shifting earth destroys everything around it. After the "cataclysm", new blocks of flats - all made of concrete slab - rise in place of the destroyed farms. Only the residents, transferred to new conditions, do not change their habits.
Different animals play with a marble in this whimsical story from Hermína Týrlová, ‘the mother of Czech animation’
A comic film about traditional Caucasian hospitality.
People’s body and soul transform into big a cloud, and are mixed with erotic shapes.
This haunting animation film, rich with symbolism, is the filmmaker's plea for a peaceful world in which to raise his newborn son. Using the menacing imagery of the howling wind, the artist provokes viewers to reflect on the insanity of war. While the film is symbolic, its message is unmistakably clear: unless there is an end to conflict, we will continue to see our children swept away like leaves in the wind.
A man is waiting for a woman at a café table. Only his hands are shown, which - to kill time - reach for napkins, conjuring from them tissue paper figures of a woman and a man.
A funny little story about people living on the soft cloud. A look at their daily life, in the morning, they listen to the bell and begin to go down the sky.
There is no place like home, there is no place like hell. The first in Rosto AD's Thee Wreckers Tetralogy.
Méliès meets Kerouac in a surrealistic road movie though the clouds. Instead of a hole in the head. Diddybob get a story about a hole in the sky. A legendary Anglobilly Feverson once flew off to leave his cursed life behind and check the other side. His journey was long and exhausting. He had to deal with the smallest and biggest residents of the sky before he reached his destination...
Short experimental film by Naoyuki Tsuji.
A somewhat dark and surreal tale by Naoyuki Tsuji. Our protagonist sets out on a journey in a world which starts at The Gate of Confusion. To complete his travels, he must meet various strange characters to relieve himself of his burdens and set himself free.
"Yoru no Okite" takes us to the sky (or to hell) to accompany the delirium of a man who is assassinated. A different take on a spirit who is adrift after being murdered. This restless spirit takes us on a surreal journey through death, the after life, and back to the land of the living again.
A Red Pikmin finds a Ramune bottle and attempts to retrieve the marble inside. After failing and becoming trapped inside the bottle's bottom, it asks passerby Pikmin for help, which – after other failed ideas – decide to create a chain of Pikmin to pull their trapped comrade outside.
I made this film while experimenting with a home made rotoscope. It was drawn on index cards. It's a sort of valentine to film, to life and to Xavier Cugat too. The original 16mm negative was lost when my lab at the time closed suddenly. Boy, I don't miss film at all. (JS)
An animation with a philosophical undertone. The absurdity of human effort, whose final result does not match the actions taken.
History of the Main Complaint is the sixth film [of a] series and is based on twenty-one drawings. It was made shortly after the establishment in South Africa of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It was set up to conduct a series of public hearings into abuses of human rights perpetrated during the apartheid era. The hearings, in which individuals told their stories of personal suffering, were held in order to make reparation for abuse and in the hope of creating reconciliation between peoples. The underlying theme of this film is a (self) recognition of white responsibility. This is played out through a 'medical' investigation into the body of Soho Eckstein, the white property-developing magnate and greedy-capitalist protagonist of most of the preceding films, which provides the starting point for a revelation of conscience. (tate.org.uk)
A woman travelling on the underground is bedeviled with images of desire. What She Wants – wholly created on an Amiga 1500 home computer – is a film about sex and shopping, the social deployment of sexuality, and capitalism in detumescence.
The film is a praise of human willingness to take on the endless challenges of fate. The loaf of bread a prisoner receives each day is used to patch thousands of holes in the cell walls. They are inhabited by nerve-wracking busy insects that flit constantly from hole to hole. When the work is finished, the prisoner is unexpectedly transferred to another cell. The new loaf of bread held in his hands freezes dramatically halfway to his mouth: the walls of this cell are also strewn with thousands of holes.
Horn Ok Please follows a momentous day in the life of an Indian taxi driver names Lucky. Lucky's goal is to earn enough rupees to buy the air conditioned taxi of his dreams.... The title refers to a phrase that is often painted on the rear of commercial vehicles in India.
A crazy squirrel provokes a dog into trying to catch him throughout the picture.
A visual representation, in four parts, of one man's internalization of "The Divine Comedy." Hell is a series of multicolored brush strokes against a white background; the speed of the changing images varies. "Hell Spit Flexion," or springing out of Hell, is on smaller film stock, taking the center of the frame. Montages of color move rapidly with a star and the edge of a lighted moon briefly visible. Purgation is back to full frame; blurs of color occasionally slow down then freeze. From time to time, an image, such as a window or a face, is distinguishable for a moment. In "existence is song," colors swirl then flash in and out of view. Behind the vivid colors are momentary glimpses of volcanic activity.
As Tom and Jerry stage their typical fight sequences, the patriotic soldier theme of the title is evidenced by such things as a carton of eggs labeled "Hen Grenades"; Jerry dropping light bulbs from an airplane like bombs; and Jerry sending a telegram with the message "Sighted Cat - Sank Same." Musical phrasings from various patriotic war songs are heard throughout. The cut scene after Jerry hitting Tom with the board 4 times was cut from the 1950 reissue print for a war bond joke, and the original footage is currently considered "lost" due to the negatives destroyed in the 1978 George Eastman House fire.
The last of Tex Avery's variations on "Red Hot Riding Hood" (1943), in which the country wolf visits his city cousin, who tries to teach him the rudiments of civilized behavior when watching girls in nightclubs - without, it has to be said, a great deal of success...
Mickey, Goofy & Donald have 10 minutes to fix Pete's car. Or else!
Donald's doing a little tree surgery when he spots Chip 'n' Dale gathering nuts. He saws off the branch outside their hole and paints it with tar, which Dale gets stuck in. Then Donald has a little fun with the long-handled pruning shears.
Schoolboy Donald is torn between his angel and devil sides, though in Donald's case, the devil side isn't hard to resist. But the smoking he's encouraged to do turns him green and gives him regrets, and when the good side shows up and kicks evil's butt, Donald cheers.
Mickey is preparing to conduct an opera when he chases Pluto away. Pluto crashes into a magician's props backstage and spars with the hat, its rabbits, and its doves. The opera begins: Clarabelle plays flute, Clara and Donald are the leads in Romeo and Juliet. Pluto follows the magic hat onstage, to Mickey's growing annoyance. The hat falls into a tuba, and soon the animals are filling the stage.
Donald is an admiral on a seagoing voyage with his nephews in which they encounter a ravenous shark.
Tom ties up Spike and sneaks into the courtyard of the glamorous Toodles Galore with his bass, hoping to woo her with his song, much to the annoyance of a sleeping Jerry.
Monty Citymouse invites his cousin Abner Countrymouse for a visit and shows him the ways of the big city, including traps, eating quietly, and busy traffic.
Minnie Mouse knits a sweater for Pluto. When she puts it on him, Pluto does whatever he can to try to get it off, eventually shrinking it to the perfect size for Figaro.
Tom is shipwrecked on an island, which is inhabited by at least one mouse - Jerry. To thwart the hungry cat, Jerry disguises himself as a cannibal.
In Don Hertzfeldt's second student film, a hapless cartoon character is dragged through a spectrum of cinematic situations by his frustrated animator.
Donald is leading a scout troop consisting of his nephews on a hike in the woods. Donald isn't nearly the expert on the woods that he thinks he is, much to the amusement of the boys. In a bid for sympathy, he douses himself in catsup and fakes injury; the boys bandage him so thoroughly he can't see, and he stumbles into a pot of honey, and is soon getting all too much attention from a bear.
Mickey's going golfing, and Pluto is his caddy. Besides the usual caddy duties, Pluto runs to the ball and points to it. But when the ball lands in a gopher hole, Pluto's got another task: chase the gopher. They eventually chase each other through a number of holes in a knoll where Mickey is trying to putt out, causing the knoll to collapse.
Mickey runs a small theatre. The orchestra plays, rather badly, excerpts from Carmen. Mickey appears as a snake charmer, but the snake is revealed to be a cat with a snake's head painted on its tail. Mickey does a belly dance, to the audience's delight. Mickey then plays the piano, but the piano and stool, apparently annoyed at the violence and complexity of the piece, kick him off stage.
Mickey and Pluto go hunting for quail. Pluto scares away the first ones they see; Mickey scolds him, then relents. He shows Pluto how to be a pointer, and they set off after another quail, but Mickey accidentally jumps on a bear's nose, and thinks it's Pluto. Meanwhile, Pluto finds the quail and points. The babies climb on board and start picking at his hairs, but Pluto's been told not to move. Mickey finally comes across Pluto, who by now is covered by small animals, and realizes he's being followed by a bear. Mickey tries to reason with the bear, and backs off a cliff, onto Pluto.
This is a hand-painted film which has been photographically step-printed to achieve various effects of brief fades and fluidity-of-motion, and makes partial use of painted frames in repetition (for "close-up" of textures). The tone of the film is primarily dark blue, and the paint is composed (and rephotographed microscopically) to suggest galactic forms in a space of stars.
By accident, Cedric (Goofy), replaces his master, Sir Loinsteak, in the armor just before the joust with champion Sir Cumference.
