In a space divided into cages, faceless people go about their everyday activities. Their daily monotony is disrupted by the appearance of a butterfly, which signals the destruction of the bars and the opening up of the space to its full dimensions. This freedom, however, does not last long, as the bars are repeatedly destroyed by the guillotine of a black trapdoor. A man then appears, walking around his cell.
As the film’s title card informs us, the animated film Richard III (1976) is based on the play by William Shakespeare. Unlike the original tragedy, however, which is one of the longest plays by the English playwright, Krzysztof Kiwerski’s film lasts just four minutes and focuses on the motif of… a horse. “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” – these famous words come from Shakespeare’s Richard III and are the very words around which the Polish director has built his animated miniature.
Krzysztof Kiwerski’s film impression directly references Auguste Rodin’s famous The Thinker. This sculpture by the French artist has become a cultural symbol of intellectual effort. It depicts a male figure in a state of deep contemplation – his characteristic pose gives the impression that the subject is struggling with some kind of inner conflict. In Kiwerski’s short animation, The Thinker briefly breaks free from the conventions associated with him – all within the span of just one minute.
Actress Diane Gardner talks extemporaneously about life, career goals and struggles in the world of show business, while colorful, animated images comment on, mirror, and probe the hidden meanings of her words.
A multiplicity of animation techniques enlivens this vision of the struggle between Shakespeare’s hapless buffoon and the forces of enchantment, set to the Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn.
A nuclear awareness fan-film satire, from 1984, synced to “Life During Wartime” by the Talking Heads, created as an expression of dismay on that era’s trigger happy leaders. It traveled the world among like-minded films a generation ago, with recognition in Portugal, Tunis, Brazil, and around the US. The MPD awarded it the “Bill Barton Animation Film Award” in 1985.
The protagonist of this psycho-thriller taking place in picturesque surroundings is a crazed station-master living in a dull village in the middle of nowhere. In both visual and audio forms, the suffocating short effectively juxtaposes the sunlit, peaceful landscape with the lunatic ramblings of the deranged man gradually rising to a wheezing roar. Post-impressionist static idylls and genre pictures of brilliant tones are counterpointed by nervously pulsating sequences moving at warp speed. This first short made by Tibor Bánóczki as a student of the animation department comprises oil paintings on cel sheets.
A young boy strays through a wrought-iron gateway into an overgrown garden filled with insects and birds. Amidst the sculptures of Antiquity, he glimpses a mermaid-like woman in a wheelchair and begins to follow her. The film consisting of engraving-like drawings is a surrealistic coming of age tale played out on the boundary of this world and the realm of myths.
