Tale of Tales (Сказка сказок) [29min][1979] Tale of Tales is a mysterious animated film, tough and delicate, that has won prizes at international festivals since it first appeared in 1980, culminating in prizes in both Los Angeles and Zagreb (in 2002) as the best animated film of all time. It was made in Soviet Russia by Yuri Norstein, who was not allowed to travel to receive any of his awards, and who was almost prevented from making, and then from showing, the film at all. It is a film that immediately changes the memory - mine at least - of all other films. It is immediately apprehensible, and needs to be seen again and again, because it remains puzzling, both as to its form and as to its meaning. The film works so deeply because it combines perfectly the way we define childhood memories every time we call them up, and the sense we have of the archetypes of myth - apple, forest, snow, wind, light, fire, water, dark - as part of those memories. One of the films great beauties is its rhythm. There is a swaying, rocking movement - cradle, pram, skipping rope, and most unexpectedly the wolf swinging himself on the treadle of an abandoned sewing machine, outside the abandoned house. There is a boat rocking on the sea, and the tango rocks. As all these movements are one movement, so all the round solids are one thing - the apple, the breast, and the potatoes that the wolf roasts in a touching sequence in the winter forest. The complete analysis : theguardian/film/2005/apr/16/fiction.asbyatt
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:19:30 +0000