Annecy 2011 – Day 4
What a day! Although the festival had plenty of delights to see I hardly had a chance to see any of them as I had spent my time interviewing both this year’s BAFTA winner Mikey Please and Disney.
It is easy to imagine a company with the might of Disney telling me to sod off as I turned up to their booth at MIFA with my tourist rucksack and dopey Yorkshire accent, but with the help of Julia and Dawn from Disney an interview was quickly organised. After getting the interview I was then expecting a strict vetting of the questions by a set of lawyers, however the guys were happy to answer anything. The interview with Disney went quite well; Clay Kaytis, Paul Briggs and John Khar are all extremely nice accessible and answered all of my questions.
One slight snag however…
On Thursday night a concert is put on for all the youths in Annecy. Bob Sinclar who you may remember from a few years ago and Big Ali, who my programme tells me is some sort of MC, were headlining the event. As I was interviewing Clay, Paul and John, Big Ali and his entourage of around 17 came barging onto the quiet balcony where I was interviewing the guys. As I was recording the interview, you can quite clearly hear the shouting and bawling of Big Ali as he gave around 47 ‘shout-outs’ to everyone in New York City before doing the same in French. His entourage thought nothing of walking up to our table and shouting on the phone as I was trying to conduct the interview before leaving as quickly and as noisily as they had arrived. Thankfully the my interviewees were professionals and obviously had some kind of special training at Disney boot camp to combat any unexpected MC press conferences barging in on an interview.
Later in the day I met up with Mikey Please for another interview. As it was a nice day we decided to go outside and record it by the peaceful tranquility of the gorgeous lake Annecy.
Or so I thought…
Big Ali and co, my friends from earlier, decided to start the gig an hour and a half earlier than expected, and before you could say ‘What is this rubbish they are playing?’ a torrent of teenagers and police populated the lakeside and the deafening concert was underway. So again my recorded interview was accompanied with my old chum Big Ali telling people to put their hands up in the air. If you are reading this Ali, stop following me around it’s a bit creepy mate.
Thankfully in the seclusion of the cinemas I managed to settle down to watch another helping of films in competition without him interrupting me, I had managed to give him the slip!
Films in competition
Nullarbor
Dirs. Alister (Colin) Lockhart, Patrick Sarell (Australia)
Set on a long barren road this film tells the story of a young man with a need for cigarettes, when he manages to upset a fellow traveller a game of one-upmanship is played out as a series of actions and consequences lead to some funny events. It’s a great film packed with laughs and populated by two well defined characters.
Dwa kroki za
Dir. Paulina Majda (Poland)
Although the film starts slow and has a bleak setting, fantastic colours are added to the landscape which define the dark silhouetted characters set against the wind. The sight of the figures digging potatoes drags on for an age before we enter a fantastic colourful cut out fantasy land. It would be pretty lazy for me to compare it to something that Terry Gilliam created with Monty Python but it is exactly the same! We see hands enter the screen and manipulate a character as he floats around this strange dreamlike place filled with the sort of things you can imagine from a Gilliam sketch. The only thing missing besides Pythons humour was a giant foot coming down and squishing everything. I realise this is the second film I have compared to the work of Gilliam but the similarities are just too blatant.
Miss Daisy Cutter
Dir. Laen Sanches (France)
Set to the panels of a comic book the graphic images splash across the screen violently in black and white with the odd splash of colour. Snakes, flying eyeballs and a skeletal version of a celebrity mouse all feature heavily throughout.
Little Theatres: Homage to the Mineral of Cabbage.
Dir. Stephanie Dudley (Canada)
A stop-motion love letter to a Cabbage…sounds familiar? Anyone who has seen ‘Stanley’ will know what I am talking about. This films story doesn’t really go anywhere though which is unfortunate because as with most stop motion films a lot of effort has clearly been put into it but in the end it does not pay out.
A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation
Dir. Martin Wallner, Stefan Leuchenburg (Germany)
It takes a lot for a film to make a viewer appreciate the situation that any character is in. In this film every emotion that ‘the boy’ feels when his father dies is something that everyone who has grieved in the past would of at least in part recognize although it is portrayed excellently in a more caricatured yet sensitive fashion.
Big Brother
Dir. Jesus Perez, Elisabeth Huttermann (Switzerland/Germany)
An artist draws two stick figures who bully a half completed stick figure as the artist is disturbed from his drawing in every way imaginable. There is more than a slight whiff of Daniel Greaves ‘Manipulation’ about it even though it is played out in a much simpler way using just pencil as the medium. It’s a light hearted film which is fun to watch.
Night Sounds
Dir. Jacob Stalhammer (Sweden)
Some directors make animated films and you can clearly see the talent shine through the poor quality of the animation, you may even say that some directors purposely shun the idea of a glossy, perfect animation and again the talent shines through. I cannot see any evidence of that here. The animation is terrible and although the story ties together nicely it ultimately goes nowhere. We just see the same walk cycle loop as the main character goes into any situation with the same grin on his face! The walk cycle is distracting enough as it looks like he has been shot in the foot without looking like the happy eater logo all the time. If this was created by a child … then well done, it’s a lovely bright colourful film and they must have been very proud to get it in a festival but if an adult had submitted this then please do not rest on your laurels – go and pick up ‘The Animators Survival Kit’ before you make another film.
Kamene
Katarina Kerekesova, Ivana Sebestova (Slovakia)
A nicely crafted stop motion piece set like an opera as we follow the misfortunes of a group of rough miners who seem to be ritualistically destroying the barren environment around them. One of the miner’s wives turns up and her husband proceeds to treat her badly. I have seen clearer and more effective versions of the ‘poor wife, horrid hubby’ situation where you feel more sorry for the wife as her husband eats most of the food and shuns her. This man is set up for an inevitable fall and the action builds up … and as his wife has an affair with another miner.