This time, he wrote and directed his first stop-motion animation work "Disorder", which was successfully shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Venice Film Festival. It’s a crowdfunded film (there’s been another stop-motion short film dedicated to crowdfunding), and the theme is the same as all his previous works: the bitter tale of a man caught up in the mundane life. At the same time, the film also has the rare quality of Charlie Kaufman: romance, warmth, delicacy, sparks of wisdom, imagination and humor everywhere.
The story of "Disorder" is very simple. A middle-aged man with a family crisis was on a business trip. He tried every means to relieve work pressure and release loneliness in a hotel room. Finally, he met a young girl with low self-esteem and spent time with her. After a short, ill-finished speech assignment, and back home dejected, everything seems to be back to the way it was before - a man whose survival skill is inspiring others, but can't even lift his own life up.
Unlike the previous promotional shorts and all other stop-motion animation styles, the characters, scene design and production of "Disorder" are so realistic that at first glance they can almost be fake. The texture of the wall, the texture of the clothes, the subtle to elusive expressions, the smooth and natural movements, and the meticulous sound design are all convincing enough, which is completely different from the Q-print style of the British Aardman Company.
If the only thing that makes sense to go to great lengths to shoot stop-motion rather than live-action is probably the seam on each character's face - each puppet in the film has a horizontal line at the eye position. The crack splits the forehead and chin into two pieces, and the jawbone also seems to be attached, there is a sense of horror that the face is about to fall off at any time. There are indeed two fantasy passages in the film, one is the male protagonist looking directly at himself in the mirror, his face is shaking and shaking; the other is the male protagonist having a nightmare, accidentally falling off his face during the escape What was left was an unsightly lump of cement-like filling. This allegorical assembled face is reminiscent of actor Mal Cowichan's brain behind the office wall, of the oblivious clinic that erases painful memories, and of the many weird things Kaufman imagined in his head. .
No matter how depressing the story, no matter how limited the scene is (the main story takes place in a hotel), Kaufman can also make the film interesting, and the details are just right. The indifference felt when calling family members, and the embarrassment caused by chatting up female fans, all made people smile. The hero and the girl were in the same room. The girl shyly agreed to sing a few lines of songs. Halfway through the song, the hero immediately praised enthusiastically. As a result, the girl raised her voice and continued to sing the second stanza. Laugh and applaud.
Undoubtedly, this is not a cartoon dedicated to children, it is not inappropriate, but it should not be seen by minors at all. From the story level, the vicissitudes and loneliness conveyed by the film is obviously a portrayal of the middle-aged group. From the point of view of detail indicators, not to mention the full-scale large-scale bed scenes of the male and female protagonists (accurately speaking, the hero and heroine dolls) in the film, and Such a heavy-duty and funny passage such as the male protagonist visiting an adult store. Such a film is destined to be unable to be released in China like Shaun the Sheep with a positive and healthy theme, but it is undeniable that it will become a wonderful landscape in the animation industry.
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