Annecy 2013: Films in Competition 5
After a hit and miss week you might expect the programme to end on kind of a crescendo, perhaps saving the best for last, and although a good few of the short films in the final selection for competition are excellent there is still the problem of some of the selection being rather underwhelming and headscratching in terms of why they were chosen alongside works that were far superior. The films out of competition represented a selection of well rounded, entertaining stories that would have easily been worthy of inclusion in the competition category, but I am not reviewing them. Maybe next year. So its time to take in the good the bad and the ugly, take your seats, savour the students making the popping noises between films and enjoy that comforting feeling of paper planes slamming into the back of your head every two minutes one last time.
Marcel, King of Tervuren
Tom Schroeder – USA
Starting strong, this film serves almost like a biography of a cockerel, presented in an enchanting graphic style which although likely rotascoped in places is not insulting to the viewer’s senses. An extreemly enjoyable tale about a seemingly indestructible bird.
Marcel, King of Tervuren
Recycled
Lei Lei, Thomas Sauvin – China
Although only Five and a half minutes long this film seemed like it was a great deal longer. Taking photographs and prints from landfill sites and sticking them together to form a kind of pixilation as tourists stand in the same place and take the same pictures over and over again, each picture is a frame and we flicker between them, this trick comes a bit too late and you are left waiting for the trick up the sleeve that never quite arrives.
Mademoiselle Kiki and the Montparnos
Amelie Harrault – France
Based on the life of the title character we chart the highs and lows of her life as she mingles with artists, singers and Hollywood. The story is created in a variety of different styles, the same scene can change its 2D style 4-5 times but this is in no way distracting as it compliments the characters journey.
Mademoiselle Kiki and the Montparnos
Carne
Carlos Alberto Gomez Salamanca – Colombia
Vague imagery and unsettling sounds take us through what seems to be slaughter of some kind. Set in claustrophobic black and white you are never quite sure of the message waiting to be delivered.
The Kitten
Shiva Sadegh Assadi – Iran
A young girl cannot find the love she craves from her overworked mother and so finds herself bonding with a cat who has just given birth to kittens. I was not a fan of the dark sepia tone in this film and the lines between fantasy and reality are never quite defined well enough to be enjoyable, it also ended rather abruptly. A shame really as with a bit of editing I might have enjoyed this.
Cosmos Will Save the World
Patrick Lapierre – Canada
This film takes a long, long time to get going and when the action kicks in it is totally unexpected. Mainly because I cannot read the French subtitles so any build up to the unexpected event was lost on me. I’d love to see an English translation of this film to see what was being narrated. Overall a very nice style and the single shot of a field worked extremely well when the film concludes.
Ziegenort
Tomasz Popakul – Poland
Black and white film with the odd splash of colour. Twenty minutes that seemed like twenty years, with poor animation, a mix between cell shaded CG and actual 2D. There is one particular shot where the father and fish headed son team ride in a boat towards the sun that is needlessly long and offers nothing to the story, you almost feel like you are on some kind of boring boat simulator. Nothing is explained or clearly demonstrated enough to make this poorly designed film enjoyable.
Lettres de Femmes
Augusto Zanovello – France
This film arrived like a glass of water on a long hot summers day, after four extremely difficult films we are sent back to the great war in this stop motion short where the characters are made using paper. A medic can heal other soldiers using love letters from sweethearts back home. An incredible film, well worth sitting through others films in this selection for.
Lettres de Femmes
Not Over
Toru Hayai – Japan
A nice enough ending, funny and short. An enormous teddy bear cuts through the landscape to a soundtrack of la’s, la’s and more la’s.