Friday, May 28, 2010

short animations / short notes / 1

gene deitch - munro (1961) / munro is only 4 but is part of the marines.. and is confused by the strange games that the army plays.

jan lenica - nowy janko muzykant (1960) / beautiful mechanic cow and its master in a surreal stroll through a dreamscape

jeff scher - trigger happy (1997) / black and white photograms play around in music.

john and faith hubley - doonesbury (1977) / 30 something ex-flowerchildren look back upon the death of an era and the passing of their idealism.

larry jordan - moonlight sonata (1979) / in a blue landscape bodies float

leigh hodgkinson - moo (2004) / the girl's cow jumps over the moon and slowly ends up eatign the whole world to get back to it.

len rye - free radicals (1958) / over african drumbeats white scrawls dance across the screen

Chris Lavis - madame tutli putli (2007) / in extraordinary stop-motion animation a creepy tale of loss and death on a lonely train ride for madame.

Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar - panique au village (2000) / a childrens game of cowboys and indians and their horse fighting over a cake in a suburban home.

paul driessen - le peuple de l'eau (1992) / a fascination with water levels of the netherlands where half the world is above the water line and the other below.

phil malloy - intolerance iii - (2004) /a hilarious and horrifying 1984 like search for the zog to the ends of the world- some people believe in them, others dont.

ali taylor - puleng (2003) / computer animated short set in a desolate farm while waiting for water.

stephan-flint muller - Bow Tie Duty for Squareheads (2004) - madcap german film makes the excavates the oddness of the images in the everyday landscape of berlin by playing with form and scale.

the blackheart gang - tale of how (2005) / a lush opera about a killer octupus and creatures from bosch who are saved by a rat.

liam kemp - this wonderful life (2003) / sentimental realism about an almost suicide on a bridge and an abandond child.

oskar fischinger - allegretto (1936) / the colours and forms of music are geometric and primary.

christopher hinton - nibbles (2003) / a fishing trip in fast forward about food.

rene castilo - down to the bone (2001) / claymation about life in the underworld.

inner city walk



irani hamam for more photos see here






moghul mosque
burhani mosque
chor bazaar
metal dome
automobile butcher
maruti for goats
one of the two tanks
the world of martial arts

bharat lokhand bazaar
flowers and glass
jeans and a terrace
towers from kamathipura
metal home

gol mandir

today morning shirish, george sonal, ginella and me took a long walk in the inner city. we started at the moghul mosque with the hamam and walked through to null bazaar, chor bazaar, kamathipura, khetwadi and kumbharwada. one surreal uncanny image after another.

this week




congratulations to jayesh and yashika. a college romance blooms into a marriage this week. jayesh and yashika are getting married and the events included a huge bollywood bash at radio club that i saw from the roof of the nearby hotel where we were at a party. the next day though as part of the lavish pre-wedding events for jayesh and yashika's wedding was a sangeet with shankar mahadevan at ncpa. and what a performance it was. the man made it look easy. the terrific ups and downs and improvisations inserted into the best of shankar ehsaan loy. the party songs and the hit ballads- kal ho na ho or maa- in which the entire audience sang along. but my favourite was 'sajda' from 'my name is khan'.


earlier kuntal, sonal and me took a short walk through an exhibit at the bmb gallery. work inspired by european art films. self consciously 'political' awful silliness made even more ridiculous by the fact that right above it at chemould a gieve patel retrospective is on. the contrast between the two make the bmb exhibition an embarrassment. at chemould gieve patels bodies of the people on then streets of the city seem to flatten themselves into pattern and texture- almost. half formed- on the verge of disappearing into mere shape- but not quite. then there are the sudden spurts of beauty like banana fronds reflected in a pool or a peacock on marine drive.



there has been time to kill in town over the past few days and we have been exploring the new version of perpetually growing slum-mall (sonals term) for the mega structure of labyrinthine corridors and commmodities that is phoenix mall. the latest addition is the palladium plaze with its fancy stone floor and ornate skylight through which no light enters. at every level designer shops sell generic looking clothes. the building ventilation system seemd ot be out of order. glass cobucles beocme ovens in parts and sudden movement into ice cold air conditionig guarantees a cold. the toilets have no ventilation at all and stinks while the parking lot gets the draft from the kitchens or smells of garbage. the cotton world guy told us that they are going to demolish the bar towards the street to make way for more shops. the new landmark is in the basement and has a huge collection of books but feels more like a clothes shop than like a book store.