Frank Film

When it comes to experimental film-making, I am the worst possible critic. Where others see great beauty and vision, I see pretension and uselessness. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the animated short, 'Frank Film (1973),' directed by Frank and Caroline Mouris, is a genuinely wonderful autobiographical piece of film-making. Over a five-year period, the directors collected a vast volume of magazine clippings, and these are used to animate the stunning visuals in the film. There are two soundtracks: in the first, Frank Mouris continually lists a number of words beginning with "f," as well as anything else that seems to come to his mind. In the second, he delivers a personal synopsis of his own life, touching on everything from school-life as a child to his career-choices in college. These two soundtracks play simultaneously, sometimes cutting over each other and occasionally seeming to merge into a single entity.

The animation works like an endless stream of the subconscious. As Frank's meandering autobiography turns its attention towards a particular topic, the visuals unleash a gush of related images. For example, as he discusses his endless love for food, we witness a collage of culinary images, each merging into the other, the memory of ten thousand past meals. This is what I like about 'Frank Film;' just like the best of cinema, this is a film that successfully connects with the way that the human memory works, a stream of long-forgotten recollections brought forth by a simple subliminal trigger. Oddly for an experimental film, 'Frank Film' was awarded an Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject at the 1974 Academy Awards, and, in 1996, was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, alongside such iconic pictures as 'Broken Blossoms (1919) and 'The Graduate (1967).'

So I just got finished watching this animated short by Frank and Caroline Mouris that won the Academy Award for the year it was made and was put into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry during the '90s. In it, Frank is speaking in two soundtracks: one telling his life story and the other listing words that start with "F" or something with a similar sound. This happens as constantly flashing images of something relating to whatever subject is at hand is mentioned. It's initially fascinating to watch and hear but after a while I wondered when the whole damn thing would end! Still, it's worth a look if you're curious about this sort of thing.

Frank Mouris's Academy Award-winning "Frank Film" consists of magazine articles forming a collage to two different sets of narration: one chronicling the narrator's life, the other a series of words beginning with F. It strikes me as an experimental movie. It's not anything special, but I appreciate how they laid everything out. I haven't seen either of the other shorts nominated for Best Animated Short that year (I guess that it depends on whether or not they're available online), but this one is still worth seeing. I understand that Mouris only made a few movies after this one. It's probably hard to make a career out of independent animated shorts.

Anyway, an interesting short. Available on YouTube.

Arguably the first mixed media collage film to win the Best Animated Short Film award, Frank Mouris's experimental compilation of magazine images is executed through two interwoven narrations (one autobiographical and the other stating words relating to the images). Admittedly, the overall presentation of the film is conceptually fascinating and it manages to provide a lot of insight into American iconography through said images. However, the rapid fire speed of the images jumping about between every second may cause divide amongst viewers depending on their tolerance for flooded images. While not deliberately photosensitive in concept, the film's overall flashy speed could cause sensory overload to any given individual.

So while Frank Film is definitely historically innovative for its time and at least has a lot to offer in terms of personal interpretation towards modern American culture, it winning the Oscar doesn't feel as warranted given its polarizing overwhelming nature, at least compared to the more palatable nominees.

Frank Film is a wonderfully done film. The film is a scrap book on film, but much much more. Frank Mouris uses a collage effect that will leave you breathless. It is hard to amagine the time and effort it took to make this short film. The film basically is an autobiography of Frank's short life. What adds to the brilliance of the film is the two different soundtracks. The film will keep you jumping back and forth between the two. Frank Film is definitely one of the best examples of a short film and it deservingly gave Frank Mouris an Oscar for this grad school project. If you can get your hands on a copy, it is worth taking the short time to watch.