Monsieur Pointu

Perhaps a bit long but absolutely incredible in its variety and creativity. No, it's not a story. It's like a magician walking into a surreal world and testing every bit of it. When I see an average of around 6 points for this, I'd ask the questions: What do you want? It is amazing.

Hmmm! I might have enjoyed this better if I were more of a fan of the solo violin, but I'm not really and so this felt like quite a long twelve minutes. It features a Chaplin-esque gent with a bowler hat trying to convince his violin that it does actually want to be played. Both it and his hat - as well as his shoes, all seem to have minds of their own and being played properly isn't really on the agenda. Some of the visual effects are quite amusing as the instrument appears to be able to assemble and disassemble at will whilst still emanating a continual, recognisable and sometimes quite toe-tapping sound. Maybe the violin just wants to be left alone to play itself? Its simply too long but cleverly done at times and just about worth a watch.

This is one of the oddest and most unusual shorts that I've ever seen and I'm still not entirely certain what the point was (or even if there was one to start with) in this particular case. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, this was nominated for an Academy Award and uses a type of stop-motion animation that reminds me of the work of Norman McLaren. Recommended for anyone who likes unusual animation.