Bunny

Bunny - Blue Sky Chris Wedge (1998) Oscar Short... von andybe29

Bunny is a nice little short from Chris Wedge, from 1998. A bunny is disturbed by a huge moth, who never seems to give up to get closer to light. Eventually, it will bring her close to it as well... lovely...

Cavallette - Grasshoppers

Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto is well-known for his satiric cartoons. One of his most famous works is "Allegro non troppo" (1976), which is a parody of Disney's Fantasia. Cavallette (1990), the short I am posting here, is another memorable one of his works, it sums up thousands of years of human history in a few minutes. History is full of conflicts, but the aftermath is always overgrown by grass in the end, and in the grass you will always find grasshoppers doing what they are doing...

Inspirace

Inspiration is an animated short by Karel Zeman from 1948. It uses glass figurines to create a unique world of imagination. I especially like the idea of a whole world inside a drop of water, it makes me feel that even in a segment of the world that appears small to us there is still space for boundless variety...

Robotto Kānibaru - Robot Carnival

The idea of a mechanistic universe goes way back in history and it was probably the success of Newtonian mechanics that made it a dominant one for a long period to follow. In the 20th century, which one may fairly describe as the period when everything previously thought to be certain has earned a question mark of varying size, this idea has also become questionable in an "absolute" sense. Indeed, it is the "absolute" itself that has lost its earlier role. The world has become relative and uncertain, even on the level of ideas... This is perhaps why the idea of a robot, a man made creation only as complicated as its creator can make him be, is a fascinating one. If they are capable of becoming something more than they were "determined" to be that would not be without reflection on the human race either. And they can indeed become more in the world of imagination at least, in which way the human being may express where it differs from the mechanistic sum of its parts. Indeed, it is the way how the human arises or is expected to arise in robots that makes them so interesting. On the other hand of course, the imprisonment of the individual in a machinelike larger entity, the society, represents the transformation in the opposite direction. Art, science and philosophy have many times attempted to express the underlying ideas, and the success of such popular hits like the Matrix trilogy shows that these questions no longer belong to art enthusiasts or thinkers of ontology only but that the general public have become more sensitive to them by the end of the millennium.

"Robotto Kānibaru" (1987) is a collection of nine animated films which have the robot as the common topic. I will only post two here. The first, directed by Mao Lamdo, "Cloud" is really nothing but a walk of transformation, of life, a walk which one begins as a robot and through the storms of life one becomes human. Without conversation, this feature is just what I find often so impossible to tell, that feeling, which is neither sad or happy, and yet it is both, as the waves of emotion balance between these two ends. The feeling of life going along, and us trying to follow naively wherever it goes...

The other feature is titled "Presense", and was directed by Yasuomi Umetsu. In this story we get to know the creator through the process of creation. Why do we create? How are we related to our creation? It can be very scary if our creation suddenly shows signs of free will and therefore those of independence, especially if we create out of need, if we create the other in a relation. What if the creation wants to become a partner? Are we not afraid of getting what we long for? We may just try to destroy then what we wanted to create in the first place... The difference between what we long for and what can be realised haunts the creator until the very end to become dissolved in the fulfilment of a dream, a fulfilment that can only be brought by the very fulfilment of life...

Walkürenritt - Ride of the Valkyries

The best word to describe Wagner's Walkürenritt is perhaps 'monumental'. You have the feeling that something great is happening and get the do something yourself. To rent a chainsaw as Woody Allen put it, or to conquer the universe maybe... But it is also a song of joy and success. For me, it is a mixture of all these together...

Jan Švankmajer

Jan Švankmajer is a surrealist artist, most well-known from his animated films. He made several short films in his long carrier, and quite a few feature length ones. His work is definitely something that should be seen rather than described. He has interpreted many a famous literary work, including those of Poe, Goethe and Carroll, while he himself influenced such film makers as Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam. "Zamilované maso" (Meat Love, 1988) is a visual allegory of a love affair that comes to a fast and hopefully tasty conclusion... "Možnosti dialogu" (Dimensions of Dialogue, 1982) discovers the (dys)functions of various types of dialogue, including the exhausting, the passionate and the factual. It is difficult to choose out of so many shorts, so I will leave it at that for now...

Jan Svankmajer - Dimensions of dialogue von popefucker

Grace And Favour

"Grace And Favour" is a 12 episode long spin-off series of the long running sitcom "Are You Being Served?" from Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. The original series told the everydays of the personnel of a department store and was very popular during its 13 year long runtime. In 1992, some of the original cast reunited to make Grace And Favour, in which the retired characters decide to run a country hotel after they realise that is the only way to access their pension fund. The first video contains the title sequence and some later scenes edited together. I especially like the character of Mrs Slocombe, played by Mollie Sugden, whose posh behaviour is sometimes so marvellously dropped should the proper situation arise... Two further scenes include one in the bedroom of this honourable lady and another one in which she is very much upset...