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World Festival of Animated Film /
short and feature edition 4 to 9 June 2018
World Festival of Animated Film / short and feature edition 4 to 9 June 2018
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McLaren's classics: A retrosopective of Norman McLaren's work
05/20/2014

Celebrating his 100th birthday, in close cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Animafest Zagreb 2014 is organizing a large retrospective of one of the most significant innovators in animation and film art, Norman McLaren (1914-1987). A pioneer of numerous techniques, like drawing on film tape, pixilation and synthesized sound, Norman McLaren was a tireless explorer of the boundaries of media, outstandingly daring and original author whose path is still followed by many artists. Scottish by origin, he achieved full affirmation in Canada and believed that film was an art form that had not yet reached its maturity and that after simple narration of Lumière brothers there should be exploration and experimenting as the natural ingredients of every artistic creation. In his lifetime he received numerous awards, like an Oscar for Neighbours (1952), Palme d’or for Blinkity Blank (1955), BAFTA for Pas de deux (1968), as well as a series of lifetime achievement awards, including Animafest’s in 1986.

As it fits to a commemoration of the founder of its animation studio, for this occasion the NFB has prepared specially restored, lavish copies of the films McLaren himself would undoubtedly be proud of. After Norman McLaren’s Opening Speech (1961), they include Stars and Stripes (1941), Hen Hop (1949), Begone Dull Care (1949), Neighbours (1952), Blinkity Blank (1955), A Chairy Tale (1957), The Blackbird (1958), Lines Horizontal (1962), Pas de deux (1968) and Synchromy (1971). It is hard to pinpoint a favourite in this line of classics, but the humorous and shocking anti-war film Neighbours about the clash of worlds growing into a mortal combat; the iconic A Chairy Tale in which the famed Canadian filmmaker Claude Jutra fails to sit down along the music of Ravi Shankar; the ballet Pas de deux; and the collage Blackbird based on a paradoxical song are a must see. In the words of Marc Bertrand, the NFB producer who compiled this retrospective: “How could anyone forget Blinkity Blank’s flickering birds? How could anyone defy the elegant depiction of ballet in Pas de deux? And finally, how could anyone remain indifferent before the yearning cry of pacifism of the Neighbours? Norman McLaren’s work is like a quick river stream stretching all the way to the open sea, away from the shores of conventional cinema.” A number of famous filmmakers, like George Lucas and François Truffaut, paid their respect to Norman McLaren, and he was also loved by Picasso.

An overview of the selection of McLaren’s classics can be found HERE.