Blinkity Blank

The idea of creating visuals to match existing music was certainly not a new one, either in animation {see Disney's wonderful 'Fantasia (1940)'} or live-action {see Jean Mitry's 'Pacific 231 (1949)'}. With 'Blinkity Blank (1955),' offbeat Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren offers his own bizarre take on the technique, matching simple two-dimensional images (etched directly onto the cell print) to some classy jazz music by Maurice Blackburn. The idea, I must admit, works better in theory than in execution. I liked how McLaren attempted to replicate the subtle musical melodies using purely visual cues, in effect the closest a deaf person will ever get to hearing the music for himself. But he doesn't quite pull it off. McLaren's primitive etched outlines, depicting anything from birds to umbrellas, communicate the tempo of the music, but not the emotion. It takes a masterpiece like 'Fantasia,' with its breathtaking Technicolor animation and gentle pacing, to achieve this aim most completely.

Contrary to my first impressions, apparently there is a story behind the animation in 'Blinkity Blank' – something to do with a bird and its cage. However, I was too busy nursing a migraine to worry too much about these details. McLaren's animation flashes in and out of frame, flickering like a strobe light, and I found it almost maddening to keep my eyes open. Had the film simply been dull or monotonous, I should still have admired the craftsmanship, which, despite the rudimentary animation, must have taken a lot of work. However, once again, it gave me a splitting headache {the first film to do so since the latest Bond flick, 'Quantum of Solace (2008)'}, and I just can't support a film that inflicted pain upon me. My relationship so far with Norman McLaren has been an ambiguous one. While I found 'Pas de deux (1968)' to be absolutely mesmerising, I was pretty much indifferent to his most famous short, 'Neighbours (1952).' Given time, I'm sure that I'll find at least another of his films that I love.

I have seen many, many short animated films like BLINKITY BLANK. Using very, very simple animation scratched onto the surface of the film, Norman McLaren has created animated shapes and animals that move in perfect synchronization to the musical accompaniment. The music isn't in the form of songs but more playful riffs and sounds as the animation appears, disappears and moves.

The problems for me about this film are that many film makers seemed to have made similar films and it gets pretty tedious after a while. I have already seen and reviewed about a half dozen similar films, though this one is in sync with the music a little better than the others. Still, how much of this does the average person want to see? An interesting experiment but not much more.

Blinkity Blank is a fine example of music creating image , the sounds you hear are mimiked it seems with the forms and flow of motion that is on the screen. From fireworks to Egyptian forms and birdcages, over a blue surface , the images being etched directly onto the cell print we are taken on a five minute voyage with basoon, trumpet , clarinet and drum.

This is a display of fireworks. It is something versus and oppressor and a sustained attack on confinement. The violent clashing of sounds works up to a frenzy. It is almost hopeless in the gyrations and stunning sounds with a jazzy, interpretive score. Again, it must have been groundbreaking some sixty odd years ago.

This short film is somehow the tale of a bird fighting its own cage but really what it is is a film that is worth seeing to be impressed by the technical nature of it. It works in two ways like this; the first is that the animation is engraved onto black stock film cell by cell, which although it looks basic and simple, is quite a feat. The images that play out are like fireworks in a way and they dance across the screen. The second area is the jazz soundtrack as it more or less matches the images as they move – with certain sounds getting different movements or shapes or both.

As an idea it is a good one. As an execution it is impressive. But as a film it is not quite as good to watch simply because in and of itself it is never more than a good idea well done – it is never a great film. It is the sort of film where you really need to understand the effort behind it to appreciate it, because just watching the simple shapes and sporadic soundtrack will maybe amuse but nothing more. It also doesn't help that there isn't much beyond the idea of the animation and the sound, and the novelty wears off on this quicker than you'd think. It does still work and it did make for a good viewing due to me liking the ideas, but I would have liked it to deliver on a third area too, making for a strong film as a whole, not just as ideas and execution.