By M., London
As a huge fan of History and being fond of derision, I have recently found out a new field which definitely meets all my expectations: animated films. My life in London gives me the fantastic opportunity to be introduced to talented and creative artists who sometimes happen to be well-known and I totally understand why. Isn't it fabulous to improve one's knowledge while watching beautiful animated drawings or laugh sarcastically thanks to an audaciously and acutely drawn reality?Yuri Norstein, a Russian animator who terribly suffered from the communist regime at a time when the Soviet Union was trying to stifle creativity, has been working on his latest unfinished animation based on Gogol's book, "The Overcoat", since 1981. His technique is amazing, involving multiple glass panes to give his animations a three-dimensional look. He refuses to use computers to speed up his works and he is called the golden snail for his slow and passionate perfectionism. He is also regarded as the greatest animator in the world. His hand-drawn animations are either inspired by Russian History (Tale of Tales, voted as the "all-time greatest" animation film in Los Angeles in 1984) or by Russian culture and sensibility, which could be seen as gloomy but actually, they are all about hope and desires (Hedgehog in the fog, Heron and Crane).Martin Pickles, a British animator and director, loves to address serious issues or events in an ironic way. "Like me, Only better", for instance, is a hand-drawn animated film about neuroses, Catholicism and Prozac; it is as pertinent as it is entertaining.Fancy a trip to Discovery World?
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Interestingly, how in London do they solve the paradox - "at a time when the Soviet Union was trying to stifle creativity", Soviet animation was most multi-styles and used most ways of animation techniques ever? ;)
ReplyDeleteHello Alexander and welcome here!
ReplyDeleteI am going to take the liberty to reply to you, even though I am not the author of this post, I hope you - or the author - won't mind ;-) From my point of view, part of that paradox lies in the plot of the book "Torture the Artist" (by Joey Goebel). What I mean is that artists very often reach new levels of expression and find new means of expression when faced with the harshest conditions (think Edith Piaf, Rimbaud, Verlaine etc.). This is my personal take on how artists, despite the harshest conditions, still manage to express themselves and this, of course, applies well beyond the Russian borders too. I hope my small contribution will be helpful here!