As part of Dead Before Dawn Festival
The excellent sequence of short film programmes at Dead By Dawn continues with a foray into animation. As with previous programmes, a richly varied collection have been selected, ranging from painstaking stop-motion, traditionally hand-painted and the now standard digitally created format.
Phil Tippett/ USA/ 2014-15/ 12 mins & 15 mins
A jaw-dropping decent into an industrial hell created by special effects legend Phil Tippett. Allegedly the first two parts of four have been six years in the making, and the care and attention is evident everywhere in this gorgeous, troubling creation. A mysterious character navigates his way through an inferno of monsters, machines and an endless army of downtrodden cloned workers. This masked Dante encounters ghastly creatures that feed on the excrement of tortured giants and the horrific violation of the workers. It recalls the brutal regime of Metropolis and the sheer horror of concentration camps of the Holocaust. It’s haunting and disturbing, and quite magnificent.
Kevin McGuiness/ Canada/ 2016/ 4 mins
Very little could hope to follow the genius of Mr. Tippett and be judged favourably. Sadly, Mother doesn’t come remotely close. The premise is lacking in originality, as its reference point is screamingly obvious, and it isn’t so much animated so much as a series of stills. The voice acting is rather good it has to be said, but this comes close to being the first real dud among the short film programme.
Resistance
Alex Chauvet, Anna Le Danois, Quentin Foulon, Fabien Glasse, Juliette Jean, Julie Narat/ France/ 2017/ 8 mins
Three giant bugs turn up to dine at a posh restaurant, where they are the only patrons. The staff prove to be awfully attentive. The metaphor of this handsome digital handsome becomes obvious very quickly but it’s nicely executed.
Down To the Wire
Juan Carlos Mostaza/ Spain/ 2016/ 13 mins
A father and daughter are threatened by a stranger on their remote farm by the sea. This Spanish digital animation is an exercise in gaining meaning from pure body language as the characters are made of wire and have no faces. It succeeds in this aim, although it’s not as engrossing as some of the other efforts, the computer imagery rather crude compared to Resistance and especially Garden Party.
Théophile Dufresne, Florian Babikian, Gabriel Grapperon, Lucas Navarro, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Claire/ France/ 2017/ 8 mins
This beautiful digital animation from France appears to be a loving pastiche of the Pixar short films that are always screened before every feature the animation trailblazers produce. In fact, it’s a while before it becomes apparent there is anything at all even tangentially horrific lurking. A group of amphibians explore a deserted mansion, with the reason for its eerie emptiness gradually being revealed. The chap with the silly blonde hair in one of the paintings on the wall looks awfully familiar. It’s a charming, funny take on the inevitable triumph on nature over humanity’s attempt to stamp its design on it.
2D & Deranged is the first of the short programmes to be of variable quality. This may be because Mad God and Garden Party are so good that the others can’t help but suffer in comparison. The highlights are among the best of the festival however.
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