Thé de sang et fil rouge

One filmmaker working on a feature-length stop-motion animated film with dolls and other materials constructed by hand must be an act of obsession--in this case, one that is reported to have taken 13 years to complete. Reflecting that, "Blood Tea and Red String" concerns dollmakers and puppeteers obsessing over and maneuvering for control of a doll, its animation and of the life borne from it. It even infects their dreams, drug-induced hallucinations and drawings. It's why so much time is spent focused on the sewing and other workings of creation, as well as destruction. That the puppeteers happen to be mice and the dollmakers some rat or wolf-like creatures with crow beaks only puts a fairy-tale layer atop what is essentially a film about its own making. It also helps that hand-crafted, personal touch pays off with some beautiful animation, undiluted by dialogue, but with a pleasant score and effective sound effects.

In the largely live-action bookend scenes, the filmmaker plants the germ of an idea--with an egg that flows downstream for the fairyland creatures. The dollmakers sew this egg into their doll, which the puppeteers steal after the doll-making "Oak Dwellers," as the film's maker, Christiane Cegavske, calls them, refuse to sell the commissioned puppet. After the egg hatches, and the bluebird flies away, one of the mice is inspired to write down the story in pictograph form. Meanwhile, the shaman frog reads the scrolls, the spider spins yarns, and the dollmakers retrieve the hatched idea and send it back down the stream to be unraveled and crystalized by the live-action animator's hand.

As for the fairy-tale layer itself, I was rather flummoxed by what I suspected might be religious symbolism. There's the Moses myth with the floating down stream business, with the animator's hand naturally being the creator, the god, of this film. Then, the Oak Dwellers hang the doll on their tree in a crucifixion pose, a position the mice will also put it in at various times. There is also the doll's stigmata-like hand holes for the mice to employ the Christ doll as a string puppet. Conversely, one may see the female-gendered doll as a Virgin Mary type birthing the blue jay. There's even the business of resurrections with the frog's hearts, plus the forbidden fruit.

On the other hand, I like others' interpretations just as well if not more so. The guy on the DVD's commentary track brings up "The Lord of the Rings" and "Pinocchio," among other things, and he and Cegavske briefly discuss the works of Beatrix Potter. There's the Labyrinth going back to Greek mythology, and elements such as tree dwellers and mystical gardens are fairy-tale staples. Better still is Tedg's IMDb review where he claims the fantasy to be the inverse of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," of the animals dreaming Alice. After all, there is a mad tea party, with the playing of cards and even a raven--once again raising the riddle of how a raven is like a writing desk. There are chattering flowers to go along with the anthropomorphic animals, there's the recurring theme of consuming food and drink--sometimes with psychedelic effects--and, again, there are the hearts, and, clearly, the film's favorite color is red--red string and red-blooded tea, although it's the spider that cuts off the heads. Caterpillars, however, are merely food here.

Cegavske avoids explaining the picture in the DVD commentary for a reason. It's ambiguous and symbolic enough to recall many a fairy tale and original enough to be of its own creation. Moreover, Cegavske claims she doesn't know the whole story of these creatures, as though, as within the film, the dolls were the ones who presented the story--the inanimate doll, via the egg, to the animated dolls that are the dollmakers and puppeteers, to the live-action hand of the creator and, finally, to us.

Blood tea and red string. Stopmotion animation is hard to come by these days. what's even harder to come by is a dark fairy tale told using stop motion. luckily we have blood tea and red string. Which does just that. I was lucky enough to see this film at Montreal's Fantasia Festival. A great festival, but one that could always use more animation. Stylisticly Blood tea could be compared to Jan Svankmajer's Alice. But it has some very dark and somewhat scary points. It could easily give any kid nightmares. Chistiane Cegavske is a very gifted animator and the world she creates is a memorable tale of aristocratic white mice, skull flowers, widow spiders, blood, tea and red string.

An Ideal film for those who like to disappear and reappear into some one else's fantasy. Cegaveske has created a world so full of detail and atmosphere it feels as if you are sucked into a dream. Like dreams, the actual storyline does not seem to matter, it feels more like a series of events unfolding before you. Also the fact that it is dialog free allows you to interpret the narrative for your self. Or just sit back and let the film just happen, when the credits role you may think what just happened, did I just watch what I think I did, oh sh*t I'm in my living room and my tea has gone cold. Technically the film is amazing, stop motion is a very laborious process and for one person to do all that is so impressive, it is not surprising it took 13 years to make! Stop-motion animation is a dieing art form so its nice to know that some artists remain true to it. The quality of stop motion animation creates such a magic feel that CGI will never achieve. The animation has a style of Jiri Trnkr, for it is very beautiful, but with a dark twist Svankmajer style. What makes it unique it that it is very much the vision of one person. Also fair play to Mark Growden for creating a sound track that perfectly complements the film and creates that fairy tail feel. Two scenes that really stick out are the mice having a drunken punch up, you get the impression that they really want to lump each other hard in the chops. But it's the trippin' out after eating the yellow fruit which really got me. If you like a unconventional fairy tail, a bit of fantasy or have any interest in stop motion, please treat your eyes to this. Also if you like this check out another fantastic feature length stop-motion film called Krysar; (The Pied Piper / The Rat-catcher) by Jiri Barta, its quite dark too!

This is a super unsettling movie, and got to me in a way where I started wondering whether I'd seen it as a child, 20-something years ago, and had repressed any memories of it up until this point. But then I saw it was from 2006, and so if I had seen it, it would've likely been something I'd remembered.

I didn't like that feeling of being weirdly nostalgic and also overwhelmed by dread at the same time, but for eliciting such a response, I think this animated film's a success? It's slow and not always captivating after a while, but the style is cool and the animation/making-of is impressive, once you know it apparently took 13 years in total to make.

Blood, Tea and Red String is a fantastic stop-motion flick that delivers some drama that'll keep you very invested in the almost silent characters.

It revolves around these white mice who stole a doll of sorts from these little creatures who live inside an Oak tree. The tree creatures want their belongings back and they set out on a little adventure to recover their stolen goods. But it's not going to be so easy with poisonous fruit, man-eating plants and a conniving spider in the way. Don't forget about the greedy and confused mice.

This is a magical-feeling little world that Christiane Cegavske has built. From great little flowing streams (which kinda looks like Saran Wrap) to a little bird with a skull for its' head. Everything in this flick exudes creativity. A fantastic aspect to the film I really enjoyed was the camaraderie she gave the Oak Tree Creatures. She portrayed them as genuinely loving creatures, and it really came to fruition. And the wise frog almost steals the show with his Yoda type qualities. And not to mention the unique-sounding fairytale music as well.

Everything came to a fantastic conclusion in this movie. A labor of love it was and a love of labor it became for me. If you're interested in stop-motion ala Svankenmejer (?) or fantasy for that matter, then you should definitely give this little wonder of a film a whirl.