Broken Frontier

I'm not writing a live account of tonight's Academy Awards ceremony, but I am watching it while I write. I just noticed that I saw all three films in the Visual Effects category, a couple of them more than once. However, I only saw one in the Animated Feature category, and that was Persepolis.

It didn't win, but I'm not surprised, because the story-telling isn't quite as tight as it was in the books. However, it is a visually fascinating and engrossing film. Marjane Satrapi tells her story of growing up, something that's hard enough for anyone to do. But she did it while contending with war, revolution, and immigration. Now that she's grown, she's beautiful, successful, and popular, and has told the story of her country and its people for the world to hear. We honor her strength and resourcefulness, and weep for her as she bears her burdens. Although the film drags in places, the chance to see the jasmine flowers fall, hear Marjane's little girl laughter, watch God and Karl Marx send her off to fulfill her destiny with a smile and a wave, and be haunted by the excellent soundtrack, is not to be missed for fans of the books. Take some tissues.

On her recent tour of the U.S., Satrapi told audiences that she wished to humanize the people of Iran for Westerners. Since talk of bombing Iran is never far from the lips of our leaders, this is a significant destiny indeed. People will draw their own conclusions about the politics seen in Persepolis, nationalism, communism, anarchism, Islamism, nihilism. But no one can see this film and miss the humanity of its cast of characters. It inspires sympathy, admiration, and solidarity. It is such a sad movie, and a provocative one. It asks the viewer, now that you know these things I have told you, what are you going to do?

The Nominees for Best Animated Short Film

I did see all the nominees in the Animated Shorts category, a rare treat that I won't soon forget. Here are a few reactions, with my hope that you'll be inspired to track these down, and find ways to support the making of more of these jewels.

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven

In this delightful 9-minute comedy, a priest races the Grim Reaper to the cottage of a little old man who is just about to topple to his death. Priests are purveyors of fairy tales, this little movie implies, and this particular priest resorts to a pretty inventive hard sell to capture Mr. Moulin's soul. He closes the deal, but then not one, but two ironic twists had the audience in stitches.

My Love

This film was made entirely with oil paintings on glass, and the result is to see the masterworks of the Impressionists set in motion. While this technique undoubtedly caused the most buzz among audiences, the torn-between-two-lovers plot was about as interesting as the 1970s Billboard hit about the same problem. A 16 year-old boy is in love with two women, one blonde and earthy, the other dark and mysterious. Guess what? The ending is sad. The visual execution was so incredible that I was interested anyway, but it would have been just as effective to chuck the one story and insert another. Only one character, the unfortunate Stepan, is large and expansive enough to leap off the screen, and he was a minor character, hardly in the film. I plan to get this on DVD and enjoy the remarkable visuals many more times, but I'll turn off subtitles, and invent stories to go with it!

Madame Tutli-Putli

In every possible way, this was the most interesting of the five nominees. I could watch this repeatedly, and wanted to see it again before it was even finished. It's a stop motion silent film with a great soundtrack, emphasis on the grotesque. It starts as a comedy with a giant dose of pathos, and then with no apologies, and no seams, it becomes a horror film. Exquisite and mesmerizing, the only thing that prevented it from being a masterpiece was a third change of mood, at the end. It became a religious film, reminiscent of the late Godard, too abstract for interpretation.

I Met the Walrus

Ever since the United States attacked Iraq, I have longed to hear John Lennon's voice. Thanks to Jerry Levitan and Josh Raskin, my longing has been fulfilled. This brief, minimalist film animates an interview Levitan did with Lennon in 1969. Lennon told the young Levitan to forget about militancy. The only true option is nonviolence, he said, explaining that the "establishment" knows how to fight violence, because they'd been doing it forever. "The only thing they don't know," Lennon said, "is nonviolence, and humor." You can do anything for peace, he said. You can piss for peace. You can go to school for peace, and you can not go to school for peace. Whatever you do, he said, do it for peace. Remember this: if there's something wrong, we can change it.

This might be just what we need to hear, in order to meet the challenges posed by Persepolis.

Peter & the Wolf

It won't do any good to tell you that I predicted this would win the Oscar, since the results have just been announced, and it did. But trust me, it was the clear winner. First, you just can't top a classic folktale. Nor can you top Prokofiev's beloved soundtrack. Above all, you can't top an expert and inspired adaptation of a classic tale to modern times, showing a young man facing his fears with steely confidence, and coming of age in an act of love and necessity. This nominee was perfect, from the first frame to the last.

I hope these advance screenings keep coming to town. While I enjoy feature-length animated films, there's nothing like a perfect tale told in a few perfect minutes. Good luck tracking these down, and next year check your newspaper. See these in the dark, on the big screen, as they were meant to be seen.