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A woman fights cancer "At Night."
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The (long) & short of it
Eclectic is perhaps the best way to describe the selection of live action animated short films nominated for an Academy Award this year. In addition to the diverse languages and cultures represented, each confers a vastly different tone.
Starting with the live-action shorts, "The Substitute" (Italy) follows a man who behaves in a wildly unpredictable, sometimes abusive manner as a substitute teacher in a high school class. He bribes students to imitate animals or attack each other by promising "splendid grades" as a reward.
When a school official responds to the noisy classroom, we discover that he is not a real teacher, a fact confirmed when he jumps out the window and returns to his position as a high-level executive in a nearby office. What happens there mirrors his experience, to an extent, in the classroom. The sometimes baffling, occasionally amusing film is "dedicated to those with difficulty with conduct."
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"The Mozart of Pickpockets" shows con artists at work.
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"Tanghi Argentini" (Belgium) is a sweet story that leads us to one impression of the main character, only to prove that we are completely wrong in our assumption -- and delighted with our mistake. When a member of the cleaning crew catches a middle-aged office worker surfing the Internet after hours, we make the obvious assumptions. The cleaning lady does, too. Andre isn't the first person she's caught! But he's setting up a date to dance the tango with a woman looking for a partner. Because he doesn't know how to dance, he seeks help from a burned-out fellow worker who used to dance, but doesn't any more.
It's a lovely tale of an average man's effort to restore the passion and spirit in the people around him. While shot very simply, the music strikes a notable (and probably symbolic) contrast with the drab office environment.
"At Night" (Denmark) is a heart-wrenching film about three women in their 20s fighting cancer. It's set entirely in the hospital ward where their respective illnesses have confined them. Despite the dreary circumstances, it addresses with surprising tenderness the issues of courage, strength, the prospect of death and the will to survive, as well as the fragile relationships we have with our parents. In the end, there's a glimmer of hope. If not for recovery, then at least for love, which nobody, as one of the girls says, should die without.
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"The Tonto Woman"
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The French film
"The Mozart of Pickpockets" tracks an endearing pair of common thieves who casually -- and accidentally -- adopt a young deaf boy during a police raid they barely escape. How and why the boy attaches himself to these two scraggly con artists is a question that goes unanswered. But the way the boy learns the trade, and essentially supports the men who take care of him, provides considerable entertainment. Even more interesting is the exploration of two lighthearted characters who seem to harbor in their new parenting roles a tremendous sense of responsibility they feel no place else in their lives.
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A devious cat sleeps with his master in "Peter and the Wolf."
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"The Tonto Woman" (U.K.), based on an Elmore Leonard story, offers the most impressive cinematography by far. Shot in the style of a classic Western and set in the 1800s, the movie follows a cattle thief who falls in love with a woman living alone on the open range. After her wedding, American Indians kidnapped her and forced her to live as a "squaw" for 11 years, boldly tattooing her chin so that she could never return to a normal existence with her husband. In the end, the new man pays dearly for his affection.
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It's a question of heaven in "Meme Les Pigeons ..."
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WITH THE exception of the pen-and-computer illustrated short
"I Met the Walrus" (Canada, and shown at last fall's Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival), the remaining nominees for animated short represent the height of sophisticated technology being used in the art form.
"Walrus" is almost a homemade movie when compared to the other production house-made shorts. It's a concise and fluidly drawn short that illustrates a teenager's interview with a rambling John Lennon in 1969 in his hotel room. Animator Josh Raskin does a commendable job for its five-minute length.
"Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (France) is a humorous tale of a village clergyman-huckster who promises to save the soul of an elderly parishioner with his complicated "paradise machine." The twist comes when the Grim Reaper makes a house call to the old man himself. It's a dazzling piece of 3-D work, combining clay work with CGI effects.
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"Madame Tutli Putli"
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Two other nominees showcasing excellent 3-D craftsmanship in stop-motion puppetry -- both without dialogue -- include
"Madame Tutli Putli," another in a long line of superb animated shorts from the National Film Board of Canada, and the U.K./Poland co-production of a brilliant adaptation of Prokofiev's
"Peter and the Wolf." The titular wide-eyed madame is a frightened figure caught on a particularly sinister train trip that ends on a mysterious note of redemption. Horror and film noir influence the effective camera angles and lighting in this short. British director Suzie Templeton has brought the classic tale of a boy and his animal friends confronting a hungry wolf up to date, with Peter being a tormented boy lorded over by a cruel relative. The character studies here are excellent.
But the most emotionally resonant short is "My Love (Moya Lyubov)," an impressionistic piece of work by multiple nominee, Russian animator Alexander Petrov. Using paint-on-glass as his medium, Petrov tells the story of a teenage boy in 19th-century Russia caught up in the throes of love with both a servant girl and a mysterious "goddess" that lives next door. His romantic yearnings and tangible emotions are exquisitely rendered, especially in the dream sequences. Petrov's cinematic artistry is top-notch.