Every year the new animated shorts from the NFB are always a reason to celebrate. It is a rare year when a film from Canada's National Film Board isn't in the running for the Oscar. As their work has done time and time again, MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI continues the organization's tradition of innovation. This stop-motion short is an astonishing visual treat. Filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowsk had real human eyes combined with their detailed puppets, in a process created and painstakingly carried out by artist Jason Walker, creating an eerie and evocative style that is totally original and mind-boggling.
Madame Tutli-Putli, with all her Earthly possessions in tow, boards a night train where she encounters a host of strange individuals, including a menacing Chinese boy, two intense men playing chess in the overhead baggage bin, and a lecherous pro tennis player. During the trip, strange trench-coat-clad men enter the train and the young woman's trip turns into a Hitchcockian nightmare.
The visual originality helps propel this film from start to finish. When the mysterious men siege the train, Lavis and Szczerbowski create a striking intensity. But how that tension pays off is less than satisfying. The open-ended conclusion creates a great deal of ambiguity to what actually happens and what it all means. If the directors want us to interpret the closing events as a Jungian or metaphysical metaphor then we need more clues to lead us to those conclusions. The thriller elements are so strong that we want more concrete answers even if those answers are supernatural in nature.
That being said, the film is still compulsively rewatchable. Even with the elusive ending, the experience of watching MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI is unforgettable. Though it's flawed, the production is an experiment that makes the viewer think, while it brings the audience to the edge of their seats.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
