Experimental Class Review: Week 6

This week is actually listed as week 7, I believe it was during this time that we had our class trip to the Void Art Gallery. So for consistencies sake, it will be week 6. I have also decided to omit "A Colour Box" By Len Lye as I have covered this in an earlier blog post.

Tusalava (Len Lye, 1929)

As of me watching this, I found out looking into the video that this was Len Lye's first film. The version of the film I watched did not have any sort of score to it so it was pretty much a ten minute silent feature for me.

That all being said, I think that this is truly an amazing video. I interpreted it as the passage of time through biology. My reasoning for that is there is a lot of images that have been used that remind me of cells and small organisms, that combined with the shape on the right hand side of the frame is constantly growing and changing, and eventually it hatches from its slumber.

Eventually a new organism grows where the previous one did, and the previous one has shaped itself into something sinister. It then almost looks like it consumes the little totem of a man and everything swirls out of control. My interpretation of this as I mentioned was the passage of time, the beginning there was life and eventually life gave birth to its counter part death. Time passes on and we see the little totem man who resembles a machine eventually is consumed by death and everything ceases to exist.

I realise that may be a very weird take, but that's how I see it and I think it is an interesting watch!

Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952)

This film honestly paints a great anti war message, the two men have the idea of war planted in there head by the newspapers. That idea sprouts into a flower, which then sends the two men into a strange state, both slide around the floor and begin flying around the set.

This cartoon like response becomes a competition to who know owns the flower. The Man on the right builds a fence with the flower on his side and then the man on the left makes adjustments for the flower to be on his side. This conflict over the flower grows crazier with each passing interaction between the two characters, the two clearly are fighting over something that is for everyone and not just for them. Just because the flower grew in front of their homes doesn't mean that either own it or have the right to deny the other from enjoying it, it could have been shared and enjoyed.

But when it comes to the desires of human kind, we often turn to conflict instead of understanding. This leads to the destruction of their homes, families and the flower. Both men die after their fight, but the message here is simple. There is no point in fighting over trivial things, when we can all enjoy them together.

The visual effects in this were fun and added to the distorted reality in this short film, the use of stop motion in particular were really well utilized and made for an interesting viewing experience.

Wrapping Up

Both films I found to be extremely interesting in their approaches to visual effects and story telling. If I had to pick one out of the two I would pick Neighbours (1952) as the use of stop motion in the comedic representation of war between men, I personally found it hilarious and extremely entertaining.

Thanks for reading!