Fast Film

Fast Film: This vertiginous short by Virgil Widrich, translate to movies an old literary device, the cento, a poem build with lines of other ones, that being united, create a new sense. Shots of hundred of films, framed here in origami (small sculptures made of folding papers), submitted to a process of animation, constitute a summary of American cinema, but also imitates the operation of making pictures. The paper train that runs along is almost always in the track like celluloid within a camera. On the other hand, the trembling movement of the film remembers the projection of old movie copies that threaten to stop at any moment. Between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart kissing each other at the beginning and at the end, the spectator is involved in an indefatigable chase-escape action in black-and- white, or Technicolor, with many bullets, cries, and fitting background music, belonging to different genres: terror, far west, science fiction, musical, comics, detective stories. Sometimes, they appear together in the same scene, when the switch tender switches on the rails, establishing a multiple dialog among them. Notwithstanding the startling variety, it seems that the perennial argument in the seventh art is first of all love and destruction. Adam Gai

I've got to tell you the circumstances where I first saw this.

I went to an short animation fest in Taipei, Taiwan, with my eldest daughter. We walked into the screening room when Fast Film had been playing for about a minute; in other words, we missed the first minute or so.

My daughter and I were laughing, screaming, cheering, looking at each other in amazement. This thing is such a labor of love. I could easily add comments that fairly well mirror others here in the IMDb, but I'll just refer you to them. I found them to be good reads, and I concur; the artists involved tapped into something about early American film, and as such taps into the collective dream we call life. And to top it off, it takes its silliness seriously, and its seriousness zanily.

You can buy this film (+ electronic license) from an online dealer for US$3. I did, and I watch it once a month or so. Go to any reputable search engine and find it.

this film contains everything what a great movie should contain: a hero played by a guy like bogey, cary grant or sean connery, a beautiful girl like marylin, liz taylor or brigitte bardot and a super-evil villain like godzilla, dr.no, the creature from the black lagoon, frankenstein or dracula. a love story, a spectacular chase and a enormous good against bad- final battle the animation technique is genious and till 2003 unique in the history of filmmaking. never before somebody came to the idea of making a movie only from footage of other famous films. mr.vidrichs masterpiece. but who knows what comes next...

Several years ago, a short film won an Oscar and it consisted of tons of clips from classic Hollywood films. At the time, I thought the film didn't really deserve the award, as there was no original content--just a nice collection of clips from old films. However with FAST FILM, someone got the idea of using classic clips in a whole new and exciting way. Using modern computers, the film makers were able to use film clips in a peculiar way--a way that is frankly too tough to explain! You just have to see it for yourself, but this is NOT just a cheap assemblage of clips. Instead, the clips move and tell a fast-paced story that is just beyond words! Now as for the story, it's not all that important. Instead, FAST FILM is more like an art film--like something you'd see in a modern art gallery. Captivating and strange--it's well worth a look.

Fast film makes you realize how basically every film has the same plot just done differently (hero, bad guys, girl who gets captured, escape, chase, fight, etc.) and recreates it perfectly using clips of film entirely photocopied frame by frame and put on paper. That alone (the paper part) is amazing in itself.

But I found myself just marveling the entire time as I watched this short and despite there being no one main character with which to identify, I was rooting for the hero nevertheless. It was also interesting and humorous in the way that the filmmakers made the characters seem aware that they were in a film based on certain reaction shots from other films - so it was self reflexive in this way. As I watched I couldn't help think "My God, these people have an encyclopedic knowledge of every old film ever made" since the story scripted for the paper movement cleverly parallels what's going on in the film clip(s).

You have to watch this. This isn't your typical artsy short film. It is a feast for the eyes and the mind.

10/10 amazing