Mofo Hall of Fame - The Shorts Edition

Yeah, I and a bunch of others saw it for my short films tournament. I should rewatch it, though.

Yeah, I was expecting one of you art house fans to nominate that, and maybe Night and Fog too, that's also graet.

I think you're gonna love the one I nominated as it reminds me a lot of Tati's Playtime (1967). Also, pay close attention to the subtle ending of Tango.

Alright. I already watched A Trip to the Moon and Un Chien Andalou prior to this tournament. I hope we'll be doing lots of other short film tournaments, because I'm really enjoying this and it's easy to watch as a break during my exams.

Anyway, I'm on a short watching spree at this very moment.

I'll keep my progress here:

SEEN - 8

A Trip to the Moon (1902; George Mélies)
Un Chien Andalou (1929; Luis Bunuel)
High Note (1960; Chuck Jones)
La Jetée (Chris Marker; 1962)
Tango (Zbigniew Rybczynski, Poland 1981)
Darkness Light Darkness (1989 Jan Svankmajer)
Jidlo (1993 Jan Svankmajer)
When It Rains (Charles Burnett, 1995)

NOT SEEN - 4

The Wrong Trousers (1993 Nick Park)
The Old Man and The Sea (Alexander Petrov 1999)
La Lettre (2001 Michel Gondrey)
Garden of Words (2013, Makoto Shinkai)

If you want my opinion about any of them, just ask.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Thoughts on Un Chien Andalou?

And Darkness Light Darkness?

I watched Darkness Light Darkness last night. It's obvious that I've done myself a disservice by waiting so long to see something by Svankmajer. If the rest of his filmography is comparable, I wouldn't mind filling up the Shorts Hall of Fame with his works.

Very interesting film. The great Salvador Dali worked on it. And Tarkovsky liked it, therefore it is good. I rate it as .

I love both!

I will rewatch Un Chien Andalou again for this list, because it's been some time, but I think it's a marvelous piece of surreal cinema. There's emotion, there's surprise, the inventiveness is boundless and of course, it's needless to say that its importance as a innovative piece of art is invaluable.

Darkness Light Darkness is awesome! It's obviously made by an extremely skilled artist and I was completely captivated! The part with the water and the penis made me laugh out loud. A very satisfying piece of stop motion (which is, just like you Swan, a medium I absolutely adore)!

I also just watched Tango and my mind is BLOWN! What a fantastic short! This one will be REALLY high on my list. I'll watch it a few more times to get every little detail. FASCINATING!

Cool Cobpyth. Glad you dug it.

Haha, here's a funny little fact about Tango's director (he won the Oscar for that short):

At the 1983 Oscar ceremony, Polish director Zbigniew Rybczynski had possibly the worst night that any Oscar winner has ever had at the Academy Awards. When his short film, Tango (1981), was announced as the winner of the Best Animated Short category, presenter Kristy McNichol mispronounced Rybczynski's name as "Zbigniewski Sky." When Rybczynski accepted the award, his speech was cut off by the orchestra. After talking to reporters in the press room, Rybczynski stepped outside the auditorium to have a cigarette. When he tried to return, an overzealous security guard refused to let him in. Rybczynski was holding his Oscar, but was dressed in a cheap suit and sneakers because he had been unable to afford better clothes. He tried to explain to the guard that he was an Oscar winner, but his English was limited. Hearing Rybczynski's Polish speech, the security guard assumed the director was drunk and shoved him up against a wall. During the altercation, Rybczynski reportedly yelled, "American Pig! I have Oscar!" and tried to kick the guard in the groin. Rybczynski spent the night in jail before the mess was sorted out.

Poor guy.

I had watched all these shorts except the ones nominated by Bluedeed and Godoggo because I had an anime channel at home several years ago who showed all these classic animation shorts as well, though I re-watched the ones which I haven't watched for a long time.

Decent short film. It's not really impressive from my early 21st century perspective but it is interesting in being a time capsule from another era reflecting European civilization at it's apex during the early 20th century before the horrors of the world wars. (historical importance rating: ).

Tarvkosky cited this film as a proof that great movies could be done with early 20th century filmmaking technology. Indeed a very impressive early film with directed contribution by the great surrealistic painter Salvador Dali. This surrealistic piece of art is very impressive indeed, .

It's interesting but was nothing really special, just another of these numerous mid 20th century american animated shorts.

Now, that's a great one. One of my favorite movies, in fact, my favorite French film. This powerful science fiction epic also heavily influenced Oshii (and hence all the anime that was influenced by Oshii) as well as western films such as 12 Monkeys. A seminal piece of science fiction cinema it is a landmark and for very good reason.

Marginally interesting experimentation but still perhaps one of the weakest nominations according to my tastes.

I liked all Jan Svankmajer films but I never loved a single one. All are amusing but each falls short of being great.

Disgusting but impactful this film produced a stronger emotional response from my part than the earlier film from the same artist.

Very funny comedy short. I had it under consideration for my top 100 animated films.

I found this film to be completely impenetrable. As a non-native English speaker I couldn't understand everything it was said. Still had some scenes here and there so I wouldn't give it an empty rating.

Now we are talking: this powerful, poignant, beautiful film characterized by a strong sense of theatricality hits on all my preferences.

It also won the prestigious Grand Prize in Animation at the Japan Media Art's Festival given by a pool of animation critics. Perhaps the world's most prestigious prize in the artform (given it's the only one I know that is given by a poll of professional critics in the artform), the prize has been given to such works as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Millennium Actress and PMMM. (Though one might say it is a elitist prize.)

Nice short. I wasn't that terribly impressed by it though. I don't have anything else to say.

Now that's more my beach (as we say in Brazil). This Japanese animated feature (it's borderline between short and feature) is among my top favorite animations don't let it's long running length intimidate you: it's beautiful, powerful and poignant. Just the way I like it. +

Ya good stuff

I've seen most of these, I'll probably watch all the ones that I haven't tommorow. Really cool set

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Also I would add that I considered for nomination Miyazaki's short (6.5 minutes long) which is my second favorite short but I guess The Old Man and the Sea was superior still both are among my top 50 animated films:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1y...our-mark_music

Seen:
A Trip to the Moon
Un Chien Andalou
La Jetee
Darkness Light Darkness
Jidlo
The Wrong Trousers

So I've actually seen half, excited for the second half, and I'll rewatch the A Trip to the moon

Does anyone have a link to La Jetée with English subtitles? I don't trust my French enough to watch it without subtitles.

There are, uhh, "ways." I don't know of a streaming version with English subs though, sorry.

Yeah, I'm exploring other ways right now.

I don't think I caught everything that was said as a native English speaker my first time through, but I think it's the rhythms that are important, rather than the words.

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Mubi