ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.01 - APRIL 2000

Fresh from the Festivals: April 2000's Film Reviews
(continued from page 1)

Traditional Animation Winners:

© Dwight Hwang.

First Place: The Reunion
Director Dwight Hwang’s film, The Reunion, focuses on the fate of two lovers during World War I. It was inspired by a trip to Paris, his interest in history and his study of various animated productions, including Frédéric Back’s The Man Who Planted Trees and a range of anime. Rendering lovely images using charcoal on paper, Hwang employs significant amounts of camera movement over his stills. Animation through sequential images, when used, typically was shot on 6s and 8s; because each piece of art was held for 6 or 8 frames of film, as opposed to the usual 1 or 2, the movement often has a ‘stepped appearance.’ This film, which lacks dialogue, is atypical of the work produced by Cal Arts’ Character Animation department; I expected it to be from the Institute’s Experimental Animation department instead.

Visually, the film is strong, particularly with the addition of effects such as snow drifting over a scene and multiplane effects. Sound, too, is used effectively to give dimension to the images. Hwang’s interest in anime is suggested in the face of his female character, with her slightly oversized eyes, longish nose and doleful expression. The pacing of the film is slow, but because the images are engaging, that isn’t completely unwelcome. After a couple of minutes, the pacing begins to suggest the passage of time as it is experienced by the woman whose mate has gone to war. Hwang might have abbreviated the black passages between sequences which tend to linger a bit too long, weighing down what is otherwise fairly balanced (if reserved) timing. The Reunion took two years to complete.

© AtomFilms.

Second Place: Mum
The Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts is known for creating exceptional student work; headed by Jules Engel, it is considered to be one of the best animation programs in the world. Among its recent productions is Mum, a puppet animation that tells the story of a woman who appears to be trapped in a marriage with a violent man. The film was produced and directed by undergraduate Nicholas Peterson, whose faculty advisors included Raimund Krumme and Mark Osborne.

The film opens with a slow pan along wooden floorboards, slightly parted and tacked unevenly with nails. Eventually we see the fine lace of a wedding dress, followed by the fidgeting hands and tense face of a young bride. From the onset, one can see that among the film’s primary strengths is its set design, which is quite detailed and lends much to the creation of mood. Producer-director Peterson created the sets, plus served as director of photography and editor. Although his use of soft focus and quick edits is sometimes distracting, on the whole the photography (on 35 mm film, using some CGI) helps set the mood as well. Slow pans, accompanied by a mournful score by Jasper Randall, reflect the sense of entrapment and dread the character feels. To be honest, the film’s ‘story’ itself is not very clear -- though I know there is resolution at the end of the film, I am left wondering about what transpired to get to that point.

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