Renaissance

Renaissance (1963)

*** (out of 4)

Another strange but surreal animated film from Borowczyk starts off in the dark when it quickly turns to light and we see what appears to be a room with nothing but destroyed items in it. Soon the items begin to morph themselves back to what they originally were. Here's another winner from the director who brings his strange but imaginative views to the animation world. Having seen a number of his softcore flicks I can't believe some would rather watch those lazy films when it's obvious the director had a great mind to work with. This movie is really a lot of fun because it allows the viewer to try and guess what items are being formed while all the visuals are going on. I must admit that I didn't guess a single one but the greatest scene for me is when the screen goes black and we see some sort of drawing, which really isn't a drawing as it turns out to reveal something else.

Renaissance was one of the remarkable shorts which made Borowczyk the darling of he heavy weight critics in the sixties. They were hard pressed to justify this stand when he turned into a career soft porn director but that is another story.

This one is a black and white stop motion one reeler in which the objects in a room reconstitute themselves after what we realise is an explosion. Dolls, furniture and assorted objects. It is not hard to make out an argument for this as the point of departure for the work of Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay. The scratch and rustle sound track is another clue.

The technique is impeccable and the amount of work involved (shooting backwards ?) must have been extraordinary.

After finding Le concert de M. et Mme. Kabal (1963-also reviewed) to surprisingly not be listed in the Arrow booklet,I was pleased to find with Renaissance that it was all back on track.

View on the film:

Continuing from M. et Mme. Kabal (1963) to depart from the cut-out style of his earlier cartoons, writer/director Walerian Borowczyk flies into stop-motion animation,displaying a impressive nimbleness in placing feathers back on a owl and the head of a baby doll bouncing towards the renaissance.