International Animation 1
A good selection here (better overall quality than the McLaren selection).
(again, block quotes are from the EIFF website)
Le Grand Content
Clemens Kogler, Karo Szmit / Austria / 2007 / 4 mins
The film demonstrates how systematically disorientation can take place, how logical nonsense can seem.
Powerpoint diagrams of life’s great, and not-so-great, questions. Very funny, the film is inspired by Jessica Hagy’s Indexed cartoons.
The Mouse Trap (Gee-dut)
Woon Han / South Korea / 2007 / 6 mins
A man is like a mousetrap and the city is like a minefield.
Apparently… (looks good, makes no sense)
Bendito Machine
Jossie Malis / Spain / 2006 / 5 mins
A primitive tale about power, corruption, religion and machines… as usual.
Cute little animation, black cut-outs against a bright background (rather like Asian shadow puppets), it’s actually the first in an unfinished series, available online at www.benditomachine.com.
Madame Tutli-Putli
Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski / Canada / 2007 / 17 mins
Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past.
Creepy, atmospheric stop-motion, let down by a excessively vague ending. The main figure has wonderfully limpid eyes - I could see Audrey Tautou being cast in a live-action version…
Lullaby (Kolibelnaya)
Andrey Zolotukhin / Russian Federation / 2007 / 14 mins
Why did he leave at night? When she was asleep. So not to tear her heart in pieces. So that memories could tear it away.
A disapointment, this one - pretentious and so, so slow…
The Cable Car (Die Seilbahn)
Claudius Gentinetta, Frank Braun / Switzerland / 2008 / 7 mins.
While travelling by cable car to a place somewhere in the mountains, an old man treats himself to some snuff. Et voilà! With every sneeze the cable car cabin is falling more and more apart. The man, however, is far from accepting his fate just like that.
Fairly self-explanatory - funny, but entirely predictable.
The Crumblegiant
John McClosky / United Kingdom, Northern Ireland / 2007 / 5 mins
An old woman remembers a childhood episode and joins this world of memory. Meanwhile the outside world goes on - oblivious.
Very elegant lines, featherweight story.
Wolfie the Pianist
Toshiki Iwahori / Japan / 2007 / 15 mins
Wolfie the Pianist - One day he receives a letter: Dear Wolfie, Please let us hear you play piano. Wolfie begins a journey through deserts carrying his piano with the aim of finding the sender
The director was actually present for this, which is nice. So is the film, which is entirely benign. Lovely textures, as if drawn with pastel on paper.