A Report from the I Castelli Animati,
the International Festival of Animation in Genzano, Italy
(continued from page 1)
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Oscar
Grillo and Luca Raffaelli.
Courtesy of I Castelli Animati.
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This has led to some growing pains. "We
don't want to get too big, but we received more good submissions
this year than we had room for. We couldn't say no, so we added
a fourth day and began screenings earlier both in the morning and
in the evening to accommodate them. The perfect festival would have
meant cutting 2 1/2 hours each day." Despite the growth, the
programs ran exceedingly smoothly, thanks to Fortini's staff and
the remarkable, multi-tasking organizer Irene Duranti, who frequently
seemed to be in three locales at once.
The small size has other benefits: there is a spontaneity that would
be impossible at a more frantic festival. At one point, during a
live performance by pianist Roberto Frattini (who frequently does
music for Bruno Bozzetto), Oscar Grillo, Marv Newland and Miguel
Rep engaged in a sort of impromptu drawing bee at the front of the
auditorium. The relaxed atmosphere was also enhanced by the large
number of children in the audience; while not all the films were
for kids, the younger set was generally a major presence. (The attitude
seemed a lot more accepting than in the US, where kids sometimes
are regarded as more of a public nuisance than an organic part of
life.)
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The multi-award winning
Au bout du monde (At the End of the World) by Konstantin
Bronzit. © and courtesy of Folimage.
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Our Viewing Pleasure
While the overall effect of this demographic was wonderful,
it could create some problems. Marv Newland's latest film, Fuv
-- a daring and intriguing work that employs comic timing as far
from the current norm as his Sing Beast Sing seemed twenty
years ago -- seemed simply to baffle most of the kids at its afternoon
screening.
The award winners were well chosen. Konstantin Bronzit's Au bout
du monde (France/Russia, 1999) won both the international jury's
Grand Prize and the Audience Prize. This irresistible piece about
a house precariously balanced on a peak is, in the best sense, a
textbook model of how to take a simple gag concept and then amplify
and compound it to the limit.
A Special Jury Prize was awarded to Bruno Bozzetto's Europe &
Italy (Italy, 1999), which uses simpler-even-than-South Park
computer animation for a series of hilarious comparisons between
Italy and the rest of the EEC.
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Jolly
Roger keeps pleasing crowds around the world.
© Channel Four Corporation MCMXCVIII.
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Special mentions were awarded to Mark Baker's
extremely funny Jolly
Roger (U.K., 1998), Alexey Kharidity's Once Upon a Time
Near the Sea (Russia, 1998), and The Exciting Life of a Tree
(U.S., 1998), yet another wonderful Bill
Plympton short.
The prize for the Best Debut Short Film went to Migrations
by Costantin Chamsky (France, 1998), while the Best European Short
Film award went to 3 Misses (Netherlands, 1999), the latest
from the always wonderful Paul Driessen.
The jury for the Italian Competition gave its Grand Prize to Donata
Pizzato's Cambi e scambi (Italy, 1998) and a Special Jury
Prize to Alessandro Rak's Again (Italy, 1998).
In addition to older material in retrospectives devoted to Rin Taro,
Marv Newland, Joanna Quinn, and Roberto Gavioli, there were other
worthwhile films that, for one reason or another, screened out of
competition. Luigi Liberio Pensuti's Dr. Churkill (Italy,
1940) is a recently rediscovered example of Fascist propaganda,
portraying Winston Churchill as a money-grubbing Jekyll-and-Hyde,
who needs a special potion to keep from reverting to an ape. Candy
Kugel's first episode of Knitwits (U.S., 1999) was funnier
and more frenetic than the original short that inspired the prospective
series. And, just when you thought fart humor was completely played
out, Oscar Grillo's Monsieur Pett, about a poor little man
whose life is ruined by his excessive flatulence, was as funny as
any film in the festival.
Andy Klein is a film critic for the New Times newspaper
chain. He is head of the animation committee for the Los Angeles
Film Critics Association (LAFCA).
