Adam Elliot
13 August, 2010
It has been a while since I have had anything of use to say. Or perhaps just a while since I have had the willpower to say it. But I was reminded recently that this is, at the very least, a good way to write about people that don’t get written about very often. Which brings me to the subject of this post.
Adam Elliot makes poignant, funny, sweet, sad, wonderful films. They are, in addition, technically astonishing and pristine- perfect plasticine animation in the tradition of all the greats of British and Australian animation. It is the subject matter, though. Touching, devastating stories of the odd one out… the people who are not quite like the rest of us, but who are still brilliant, glowing, human.
Most recently I watched Max and Mary, and I could not help but cry and laugh all at once. If you have any interest in animation, I would watch this.
I’m So Proud Of You
5 September, 2009
In my left hand I hold stars and in my right I hold ice and the weight of both is equal and staggering and both are escaping always.
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
26 October, 2008
There are things living in the walls, behind and under the world. They keep us moving, they keep us watching, they are waiting.
The Meaning of Life
26 October, 2008
Breathe. You are forgetting to breathe.
A Course L’Abime
26 October, 2008
Stop thinking you know what you are doing.
everything will be ok
11 October, 2008
You don’t understand, do you? Everything could go to hell and it still would be ok. Horrible is ok. Everything is ok.
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
4 October, 2008
Untie the strings. Pull the ends and unravel the world.
The Animation Show (Vol. One)
13 September, 2008
This is my favorite of the animation shows thus far, partly because of the intro, intermission, and closing animated by none other than Don Hertzfeldt. The work in this collection is, it seems to me, far more sophisticated and far more interesting than most of what has come later. The presence of work by Georges Schwizgebel and Adam Elliot lends the thing an air of true artistry, which isn’t necessarily lacking in later shows as much as it is harder to find, unless there is a Hertzfeldt piece playing. I do love, very much, the simpler pieces in this volume as well- Fifty Percent Grey and Das Rad will always hold special places in my heart.
While there are misses in this portion of the festival, of course- Cathedral being one of them- the hits seem to be much more powerful than the misses ever will.
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
10 August, 2008
I cannot stop humming the score to myself, and I cannot stop dreaming of things made of string. Like almost nothing else, the Brothers Quay can invade the mind and expose parts of the psyche that perhaps did not exist until they entered. The delicacy of this particular piece is astounding, the loops of narrative that play back and forth and parse the film of which they are part until aesthetic and story are one.
Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)
10 July, 2008
If ever there was proof that Lynch was not meant to be a sculptor, this is it. The piece is clever, in that art student way. And of course, there is Philadelphia all over the place. Vomited across the screen.
Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times)
Just as an aside, did you know David Lynch sells coffee? Apparently it’s delicious. Tastes like existential terror.
