LFF – movingpic

I want to make a post-LFF note about a film that I saw during the festival and which surprised me. It is the film by Lorenzo Mattotti The Bears’ Famous Invasion (2019).

The movie is an adaptation of well-known Italian children’s book by Dino Buzzati (1945). Lorenzo Mattotti, the director of the film, is a famous Italian illustrator and comic artist who’s work you might be seen on covers of The New Yorker, The Vogue, Cosmopolitan and other magazines and books.

I remember that in the middle of the show, I found myself more concentrated on the backgrounds and characters constructions instead of following the storyline.

The film is full of strong visuals with appealing shapes, and bold, warm colours, and almost have no sharp angles. And all these arcs add an attractive flow to the sequences. Additionally, there was strong attention to the perspective that leads viewers throughout each background. Because of it, each frame could be easily printed as a postcard or poster.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this film is a strong representation and celebration of the artist’s style.

This week the London Film Festival is happening. And I was fortunate enough to get the last available tickets for some animation screenings (almost everything is sold out).

On Sunday, I saw the collection of carefully selected shorts (ANIMATED SHORTS FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES). Among some well-known studio’s animations from Disney, Soyozmultfilm and Japanese studio Ponoc were presented works from the UK students- JERICO (2019, 1min), The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim (2018, 5min), Home Sweet Home (2019, 1min).

But I would like to mention one particular work. It’s a 2D animation NEST (Germany, 2019, 4min) by director and animator Sonja Rohleder. The story is about Paradise bird who attempt to impress females.

This playful and musical animation stands out from others because the primary colour is black. The pure black background used throughout the whole movie. Hence, we don’t see the definite shape of the character, we can pay more attention to how it moves, how it expresses fillings and to a beautiful theme that leads us. Our mind builds necessary forms and just small bright, colourful elements like plants, berries, feathers and some body parts helps us with it.

And of course, the music plays a vital role in this work. As soon as there no additional sounds, it connects everything into the picture.

In one interview, Sonja mentioned that one of the significant influences for this short was The Blackbird by Norman McLaren.

Here on her site you can find some sketches, storyboards and designs for this film, as well as explore Sonja’s other works.