Father and Daughter

In my view, this piece is the equal to The Man Who Planted Trees (which is high praise indeed) and it should be in print and widely available. Sadly, all too many short animated pieces are not in print (or even seen, these days) and this reality will not be altered any time soon, I'm afraid. End of sermon.

Father and Daughter is simply breathtaking. The whole package-music, backgrounds, animation, story-everything is excellent, with nary a misstep. Basic themes repeat throughout and the attention to detail is extraordinary! Particularly watch toward the end, the shadows and the interaction of movement. That this won the Academy Award and deserved to is an understatement. There were three exceptional nominees, all of which is a testament to the committee overseeing the shorts nomination process. So far as I'm aware, only one (Rejected) is in print. I saw Father and Daughter on The Sundance Channel, as part of Shorts Program 103. Most highly recommended.

In 2000, Father and Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Short Film for its Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit. For such a short (eight minutes) movie it has a remarkable capacity to move an audience. The story of a father who leaves his daughter and rows off into the ocean, it commences with two figures riding their bicycles, the smaller of the wheels in perfect symmetry with the larger. The father and daughter climb to the top of a hill at which point the father alights, hugs his daughter before climbing down to the seashore. He cannot resist running back and holding the girl one last time before rowing off towards the distant horizon. The girl runs up and down against the skyline as the sun gradually sets. There is no explanation. She returns again and again to her vantage point on the cliff to peer out to sea for his return. Each return marks a passage in her life from child to adolescent, mother and eventually old woman. And still she returns to search for the father who left her.

The landscape of the Netherlands with its wide skies and tall poplar trees is the backdrop to the movie. The sky and landscape is a delicate colour wash of brown, grey, sepia, sometimes hints of green or blue. The drawing is pencil and charcoal, the drawings scanned and colour added digitally. Remarkably in a film that deals in emotion, there is no facial detail whatsoever. Often the figures are drawn in silhouette. This can be remarkably effective in conveying mood: the old woman toiling up the hill, the flapping arms of the child, the teenager gliding down the slope on her bike, which in another later scene will simply not stand upright. Always the brushwork is spare, perhaps a stroke that transforms into a slender girl or a smudge for the squared old woman. Each shot is exquisite: the long shadows of trees or bicycle; seascape and sky, vast and empty. The seasons change with a rustle of leaves or the girl struggling up the hill against a wind that bends trees. The music by Norman Roger is sympathetic to the theme, essentially a lilting tune but arranged with tone and depth.

This astonishingly accomplished and poetic movie fulfils in every sense. Michael Dudok de Wit was born in 1953 and educated in Holland. In 1978, he graduated from the West Surrey College of Art in England. His films include Tom Sweep (1992), The Monk and the Fish (1994) and The Aroma of Tea (2006). You might also have seen the rather classy commercial for United Airlines, A Life. Given his draftsman-like qualities, Michael is much in demand as an illustrator for books. My Christmas present from my family, and well recommended, was Best of British Animation Awards Vol.4 that includes Michael's Oscar winning short.

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There is a man who had a young daughter. He went, leaving her. She believed that he would certainly come back, so she continued to go to the place parted from him.

I was sad and painful. Because daughter went to place parted from her father, but her wish wasn't fulfilled. She grew up and the lake disappeared. This part and film's music made me sad. Perhaps, without music I couldn't feel painfulness.

I have two mysterious points. First, why do they use bicycle? They used bell of bicycle instead of saying words. Whether it rained or the wind blew, she used bicycle. I think that it is necessary to use bicycle. Second, why do writer not draw people's face? If the writer drew people's face, I would understand this film better.

I think so, this film is wonderful. Because this film impressed me without dialogue and people's expression. Last scene made my heart tight. I became that it is likely to tear.

This is the story about a father and his daughter. First, the father went to somewhere by bicycle and boat. His daughter saw him off by the sea.

The daughter waited for a long time, because her father did not come back. A long time passed after he went. She waited and met for him on the rainy day and wind day, with her bicycle. She grew up. She made many friends. They spent their days the usual way. However, she did not go through. She stopped at the place she said good bye to her father. She had never forgotten.

This story makes me so sad. I want her to meet her father when he lived. However I like this movie, because I can see the love of the father and daughter. It is so beautiful.

I recommend this story. If you see this, you can see the love of father and daughter. You will feel so good.

Father and Daughter is one of the most touching pieces of art I have ever seen. Although the movie only lasts eight minutes, the effect on its audience will probably last a lifetime. To describe 'Father and Daughter' as beautiful is just an understatement. Go see this gem and be amazed yourself.