So

by Peter Gabriel

The only record of Peter Gabriel I ever owned on vinyl was manufactured in the USSR and entitled simply «Питер Гейбриэл» (apparently, they weren’t so sure how to translate So to Russian, and the spelling «Гейбриэл» must have looked innocent back then).

I also had a curious double compilation album Greenpeace Breakthrough (1989) which included the So opener «Красный дождь» (Red Rain). I completely forgot that, in addition to Peter Gabriel (now as Питер Гэбриэл), it featured Sting, Grateful Dead (Грейтфул Дэд), Sade (Шаде) and Dire Straits (Дайер Стрейтс)!

About the same time, I first spotted Sledgehammer and Big Time music videos on 2×2, the first commercial TV channel in the USSR. Man I was impressed.

The covers of the So songs abound. I love Sledgehammer by Morgan James...

...and Mercy Street by Rosegarden Funeral Party.

But nobody makes Peter Gabriel covers better than Gabriel himself, with a little help from his friends. My favourite So re-interpretations are Don’t Give Up as a duet with Tracy Chapman...

...and In Your Eyes with Youssou N’Dour, Angélique Kidjo and Soweto Gospel Choir.

Five animated shorts

I was curious about the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. Last week I had a chance to watch them all.

Forevergreen

a film by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears

Moralising and predictable, this film is hands down the wurst of the lot. In case you didn’t know it: pine nuts good, junk food bad.

The Three Sisters

a film by Konstantin Bronzit

The three titular sisters lead their forlorn existence on a small island. Naturally, it’s all transformed when a sailor moves in. This (not so) slightly misogynistic short can make you giggle a couple of times before you get bored.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

a film by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

I wonder what was the real reason for giving this stop-motion animation its Oscar. Yes, it’s technically stunning. The story is rather dubious, to say the least. And I didn’t feel any emotional connection to its, let’s be honest, ugly characters.

Butterfly

a film by Florence Miailhe

Touching and beautiful, Butterfly is based on the life of the Olympic swimmer and Holocaust survivor Alfred Nakache. Now this is the Oscar material.

Retirement Plan

a film by John Kelly

At just seven minutes, this film is the shortest — and, IMHO, the best — of the five.

Memoir of a Snail

a film by Adam Elliot

It’s more than refreshing to see a modern animation (or any modern film, for that matter) made entirely by humans. In words of its director,

every prop, set and character in the film has been handmade. There’s no CGI, no AI, everything you see is something real and tangible that you could hold in your hand.

Besides the visuals, I loved the story and its (often, but not always, dark) humour. The voice talents include Sarah Snook, Jacki Weaver, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon and Nick Cave (yes the Nick Cave).

39 very short films

Thirty-nine? You must be kidding me. Not ten, not fifteen, but 39 short films selected from, wait for it, 58 submitted to the competition. The competition in question is called Visionaria, but I’m afraid this year’s jury had a very vague idea what “selection” is. Judging from what I’ve seen yesterday, the remaining 19 films (33%) must have been pretty unimpressive. The screening was held in Teatro Guiniguada which was packed — with Rabbit’s friends and relations, I suppose. Short films are not that popular otherwise.

The complete programme is available here — I can’t be bothered to list all films in this post. I liked Femme by Javier González and Still Live by María Sanz Esteve. My favourite, however, and the one I voted for, was Agatha Christie estuvo aquí by Cayetana H. Cuyás which, to my delight, has won the first prize.

All the films are available at YouTube.

Twelve animated shorts

For a second day in a row, I went to Teatro Guiniguada, this time to watch a selection of winning animated shorts of Animayo Gran Canaria 2020. Some good, some not-as-good, and some strange. Like the Citizen Watch ad. Or much longer and much less palatable ad for Diablo IV. Or Cross Me by Ryan Staake, featuring the dancer Courtney Scarr — a very impressive music video for a godawful song of Ed “Is he ever off the air?” Sheeran.

My favourites were Maestro by Illogic, Mémorable by Bruno Collet and Узы by Dina Velikovskaya.

Animayo 2020: Proyección del Palmarés Internacional Teatro Guiniguada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Wednesday, 20 January 2021, 19:00

Blind Eye by Isabela Littger, Bruno Cohen, Rohit Kelkar, Yujia Wang, Germaine Colajanni, Rohan Deshchougule and Diego Porral (France) — Special Mention for Creativity and Humour Citizen, I’m late by Piotr Borowski (Poland) — The Best Advertising Cross Me (Ed Sheeran feat. Chance the Rapper and PnB Rock) by Ryan Staake (UK) — The Best Music Video Diablo IV: By Three They Come by Doug Gregory, Wendy Campbell, Mike Kelleher, Chris Thunig & Jason Fleming (USA) — The Best Video Game Cinematic Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson (USA) — The Grand Jury Award Maestro by Illogic (France) — The Best 3D Mémorable by Bruno Collet (France) — Special Mention Mind My Mind by Floor Adams (Belgium/The Netherlands) — The Best Comedy 400 MPH by Paul-Eugène Dannaud, Julia Chaix, Lorraine Desserre, Alice Lefort, Natacha Pianeti & Quentin Tireloque (France) — The Best Visual Effects The Office of Missing Children by Michael Schiller (USA) — The Social Awareness Award The Tomten and the Fox by Are Austnes and Yaprak Morali (Norway) — The Children’s Audience Award Узы (Ties) by Dina Velikovskaya (Germany/Russia) — The Best Stop Motion

Gogs

an animation series by Deiniol Morris and Michael Mort

The first time I saw an episode of Gogs was some 20 years ago, in Leeds, during LIFF. It was an evening of British animated films featuring, among others, Achilles and A Close Shave. At the time, I didn’t know much about Wales, so for me it was like a revelation: Gogs were Welsh!

In the 2000s, I bought the DVD. Our kids practically grew on them, so I forgot what effect they could have on fresh audience. Last year, on my penultimate day in Liencres, I did show my 5-year-olds a couple of episodes — only to be totally ignored. I couldn’t understand what’s wrong with those kids. Wasn’t it gross or violent enough for them? Then again, it took a while to introduce them to Simon’s Cat, which they eventually demanded daily.

Last week, it was a turn of my sixth-graders. On the last day before the Easter break they were clearly not in a mood for science. To my delight, their reaction was exactly what I was hoping for.

— ¡Qué asco!

Yes, my dears. If I don’t teach you a bit of British culture, who will?

Historia de un Oso

a film by Gabriel Osorio Vargas

This year’s surprise Oscar winner for Best Animated Short Film, is a beautiful heartwarmingbreakingwarming story. Bear Story, to be precise.

Amor en tiempos de Ikea

by Nadine O’Garra

According to the artist’s website,

Love in Times of IKEA is a solo performance, created and performed by Nadine O’Garra, a circus—theatre multimedia—monologue piece, in the form of vertical dance and video projections.

I actually did not read this description before going to Café de Las Artes Teatro and so did not know what to expect. Some sort of circus performance maybe? I liked the name and went anyway.

It turned out to be part acrobatics, part stand-up comedy. This second part was the best. There were not too much existential revelations, not to me at least, but I did find it funny, if not hilarious throughout, and Nadine was charming. I was surprised how short the performance was (only about 30 minutes), but short is better than long, and I doubt there could be enough IKEA-related funny material for, say, a 90-minute show.

Panique au village

a film by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar

Tired of computer-generated (celebrity-voiced / 3-D / Pixar) animations? Try this one for a change. Refreshingly lo-fi, low-budget stop-motion Belgian film featuring Cowboy, Indian and Horse. Silly, crazy, absurd... call it whatever, A Town Called Panic is the funniest animation I’ve seen this year.

We’ve missed this film when it was screened in Cambridge (for one week only in October — I call that crazy). Once again, well done Saffron Screen!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

a film by Wes Anderson

By some reason, we did not go to see Fantastic Mr. Fox when it was in the movies. Now kids have borrowed the DVD from the library and I got to watch it with them. I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I think Roald Dahl would also approve of it. Somehow, stop-motion animation seems to be the ideal medium for the story. And the dialogue is great.

Mrs. Fox: Why is he wearing that bandit hat?
Mr. Fox: His ears were cold — he’s not with us — go back to bed!

A quick opinion poll has revealed that Kylie the opossum (voiced by Wallace Wolodarsky) is my and kids’ favourite character. Yes I know there are no opossums in the book, or in England, for that matter. So what? Maybe he is a skilled migrant.

Sledgehammer

by Peter Gabriel
music video directed by Stephen R. Johnson

The 1980s was not the best decade for rock music, but it certainly was the golden era of music video. And there is no better video from ’80s than Peter Gabriel’s classic Sledgehammer, animated by Aardman. According to Wikipedia,

the music video was shot frame by frame. For one scene, Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours with raw fish.

I just love stop-motion films.

Coraline

a film by Henry Selick

There’s nothing quite like watching a horror fantasy film in the middle of a perfect May Sunday. Today, we went to see Coraline the movie. It was good and sometimes thoroughly scary. Especially in 3-D. (True, it is not as good as another Henry Selick’s creation, The Nightmare Before Christmas; but then, there ain’t many movies better than The Nightmare Before Christmas full stop.) The movie’s opening words were “раз, два, три, четыре”. Now I really have to read a book.