Sisyphus

I was captivated by this short. You can feel the struggle, the strain, the torment, the pain, the hopelessness of an eternity of torture awaiting poor Sisyphus. Is this the vain struggle of life? The human condition? The meaning of life itself? How important a piece this is!

After reading Camus work, focusing on the existential hero of our times, we must remember that Sisyphus was happy. Life isn't always about result but the living of it. This is a remarkable little feature, with great effort to produces an anatomically stressed creature, pushing a huge boulder up a mountain. Actually, the myth isn't followed totally, which you will see. I saw this years ago and was just as impressed.

If this short animation doesn't leave you feeling exhausted the I don't know what will. A man with almost perfect musculature has to roll a great big boulder up to the top of a pyramid of other great rocks - and judging by the energetic audio it's an all but Herculean task. Why? Well we're not told that here but your Janet & John book of Greek Mythology will tell you that he was a greedy king who broke the sacred rules of hospitality and was being eternally punished by Zeus. The animation is wonderfully simple illustrating the litheness of his body and the onerousness of his perpetual struggle with a fluidity that works well married with the increasingly breathless sound. I must have seen this as child as I'm sure it's the reason I avoid the gym!

We in the 21st century are used to seeing flashy animated features. Marcell Jankovics's "Sisyphus" is a welcome surprise. Lasting only two minutes, it features low-key animation to tell the story of a man who must perform the eternal task of pushing a boulder up a mountain. The Eastern Bloc produced a number of plain-looking cartoons that nonetheless managed to tell good stories. After all, good storytelling doesn't require a lot of resources, just talent. There was plenty of that going into them, and this unglamorous production from Hungary deserved its nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards that year. I recommend it.

Possibly the best animation I have ever seen!