Strings

The paintings in this animated feature are unique with a kind of faded coloration that gives two old people character. The story is simple. A woman lives in a kind of run down apartment. She takes a bath and a pipe begins to leak, causing damage to the ceiling of the old man downstairs. No words are spoken so it's left to us to figure out the point. A strange thing is that the woman has a huge model of the Titanic.

This short, nominated for an Academy Award, is a story first and foremost, for all that there's no notable dialogue. The animation is relatively simple and straightforward (although the detail of the backgrounds is quite good) and the events unfold as the short goes on. I'm still not quite sure what to make of the ending and find the short a trifle unsettling, but it's well worth watching. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, it used to run on the Cartoon Network periodically on O Canada. Recommended.

This is one of two short animated films that were nominated for the 1992 Oscar for this category. It seems that the Canadian National Film Board sponsors many animated shorts and this is one of many I have seen from them that was Oscar nominated--my favorite of which might just be THE BIG SNIT from 1985. However, in most ways this older and the newer films are like complete opposites. THE BIG SNIT has only passable animation but the story is so funny and the humor so bizarre I couldn't help but like it. With STRINGS, the story really didn't seem all that important--I was taken in more by the exceptional and striking graphics.

As for whether I liked the film, it was nice but not one to get terribly excited about and in retrospect, all three Oscar nominees that year were rather limp. Of the three, my favorite is STRINGS and is worth a peek.

Another good short animated by the National Film Board of Canada. In her 3rd floor apartment, a woman works on a miniature version of the Titanic. She takes a bath with it. In the apartment below her, a man is hosting a dinner with members of a string quartet. And they play music. The kind of music that was probably playing on the famous boat before it sank. Back on the 3rd floor, there's a leak. It will get to the point that the chandelier downstairs will just fall, like the ones in the Titanic after the encounter with the iceberg. But the ending brings doubt. What to make of it? That is the question...

Seen at home, on January 25th, 2005.

81/100 (***)