Madame Tutli-Putli

This was an astounding, haunting little film. The protagonist has this eerie Buster Keaton look about her and the subtlety and realism of her expressions is extraordinary. It's like no stop motion animation I've ever seen. The protagonist is this small, put upon woman who embarks on a train journey with what appear to be all her worldly possessions. She speaks not a word the entire time, but her gestures and her giant silent film star eyes are incredibly evocative as she faces small insults and later very real threats on her journey. Try to catch a screening of this amazing tiny gem if you can, or order it via Netflix. It's absolutely worth it.

This is one of the most visually striking short films I have ever seen. In fact, I was stunned by the animation style that I immediately checked around the internet to try to determine HOW they did this film. One claimed they were puppets with real sets but I couldn't get much more about it--and I really hope they release a film showing how they made it. The film is so unique, so beautiful and such an artistic triumph that you really cannot appreciate the look of the film until you see it for yourself. In light of this, I am not at all surprised that it's been nominated for an Academy Award--we'll just have to wait and see if it wins.

As for the story, it's best described as confusing and practically insignificant. It's as if the film is an artist's pallet and you watch and absorb the film--meaning and significance are really up to the beholder. Other than it's obvious Madame Tutli-Pulti has gotten on a very strange and surrealistic train, I really am not sure what it was all about and that, for once, is okay with me. You just have to see it to believe it.

UPDATE---This is the day before the Oscars are announced for 2008 and I just got back from a special screening by our local film society of all five films nominated in the category of Best Animated Short Film. This film was among the five and I was surprised that my reaction to the film differed, somewhat, the second time. First, on a big screen, Madame and the other characters were significantly uglier and creepier, though the sets and effects were still amazing. Second, the story was still weird and incomprehensible! I predict that although this film is very different and likable, it probably won't win the Oscar as "Même les pigeons vont au paradis" and "Moya lyubov" were among the nominees and seemed like better films.

ANOTHER UPDATE--2/24/08--The Oscar was just announced and the winner in this category was PETER & THE WOLF.

Madame Tutli-Putli is one of five Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short of 2007. I saw this Canadian effort on a link from Cartoon Brew. It basically tells, in silent form with luminous musical scoring throughout, a story of a young woman with plenty of baggage, both literally and figuratively, on a train as it travels during the day and night with other people and insects who may or may not be figments of her imagination. I admired many of the images and the way various cuts and movements were made yet there was a confusing air that wasn't entirely satisfied by the end. It's obviously supposed to be dreamlike in a kind of abstract quality but that wasn't enough for me to think this was one of the best animated efforts of the previous year. Still, it was certainly unique so on that note, I'd recommend Madame Tulti-Putli to anyone with a real sense of imagination.

With a name like Tutli-Putli, one can expect many things. But one will not expect the marvelous short film Lavis and Szczerbowski will present you. Though the name sounds kinda ridiculous (and is reminiscent of oddly creepy characters from children's tales), it's actually a Hindu word referencing "puppet" and "delicate women". Bet you didn't expect that.

Madame Tutli-Putli is a 17-minute, stop-motion animation short. Now, I'm a big fan of stop-motion already, but the work of both directors takes this particular field in cinema way beyond.

Looking at the credits, you'll see that both directors did a lot of the work themselves. From script to art direction to animation to sculpting, it's all very much their own blood, sweat and tears. Typical for such films (where directors are playing a key role in most aspects of the production), Madame Tutli-Putli has a very characteristic and detailed feel to it.

The most striking element of the film are the visuals, which are beyond impressive. The combination of agile camera work with the animation of the puppets is simply nutters. A lot of effort was spent on getting the lighting just right, the puppets look gorgeous and the setting just oozes detail. The visual impression reminded me of the work of Pitoff and Caro, set in a universe that could've easily been that of Les Triplettes de Belleville.

The animation itself is quite slick and solid, without losing the stop-motion feel. Another eerie detail are the eyes of the puppets, which were filmed in real life, then superposed on the puppets. They've tried a similar technique with mouths before, but never to good effect. With the eyes it works miraculously, giving the puppets that little extra bit of humanity.

Apart from the stunning visuals, the film boasts a marvelous score, starting off rather jazzy and ending in more ethereal sounds as the film progresses. It's nice to see that the same level of detail went into creating and timing the soundtrack, something which is often overlooked.

The film is short, making the story rather confusing the first time around. There is no dialog and little time to grasp the realm of Madame Tutli-Putli. The whole story develops inside the train and transcends normal storytelling by the end of the film. Personally, I liked the feel of the ending, although I haven't been able to make much sense of it so far.

If I had to name one downside, it would be the length of the film. I realize the amount of work that goes into creating a short like this is tremendous, but in the end it does feel rather short and I wouldn't have minded to sit through another solid 40 minutes of Madame Tutli-Putli.

This short is a marvel in the realm of stop-motion film. A true milestone project that will hopefully keep the genre alive. Sadly, it's another short film and no full length feature, but hopefully this film might give Lavis and Szczerbowski the funding to create a feature film in the near future. Definitely recommended, 4.5*/5*

I saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs Festival of Short Films and it's a stunningly well made visual and audio experience. This is the story of Madame Tutli-Putli, who in her 1920's era clothing boards a train with all her earthly possessions packed in dozens of suitcases and trunks and heads into the evening sharing a car with two men playing chess, a man and is son and a menacing-looking and acting man who she all see's as people from her past. She descends into a nightmare as the train rolls across the remote Canadian countryside. This film won the Best Animated Short at the Toronto Worldwide Short film Festival. Fimmakers Chris Lewis and Maciek Tomaszewski are the writers, directors, editors, sculptors, art directors and animators of this stop action puppet short. They used sets combined with animation and used models for each puppet to correspond with the animation and filmed live action eyes for each puppet which both combined give these stop action puppets a half human looking appearance. The Sound team of David Bryant, Oliver Calvert and Gordon Krieger have put together a great film track and Bryant teams with Jean Frédéric for the film's wonderful mysterious musical score. Josh Walker provides special effects and Laurie Maher photographs. Lewis and Tomaszewski researched and formulated ideas for this film on a train trip across Canada. They have a cult following with their comic strip Untold Tales of Yuri Gatarin. I would give this a 9.0 out of 10 and hope to see more from these filmmakers.