Stuff and Moonshine

ILast night we rewatched Yellow Submarine (1968j and afterwards I went on the internet hoping to figure out some of the film’s sources for footage to rotoscope, etc. No luck yet, but while googling “multi-plane camera,” hoping to find more detail on that beautiful shot at the beginning of the “Eleanor Rigby” sequence, I learned of L’Idée (1932), by Berthold Bartosch, who had worked with Lotte Reiniger and years later mentored George Dunning (that’s the specific connection to Yellow Submarine — Dunning directed it).

Anyway, of the versions of L’Idée that I could find online, the slightly-less-blurry one is here: https://youtu.be/joiOYX_73jI

It’s about twenty-five minutes long, done with cut-out animation and soap-on-glass for a lot of the effects. I’ve no idea whether a cleaner copy exists or whether it was always that fuzzy. The symbolism is not exactly subtle— a nude woman representing an Idea (probably Socialism by the looks of things) goes into the world, survives attempts to suppress her, inspires a failed revolt and a lot of martyrs but cannot herself be killed. The bits that work *really* work— I’m especially fond of the shot from inside a cafe as people move along the crowded, rainy sidewalk outside. The score is by Arthur Honegger and uses an early electronic instrument called the Ondes Martenot. Worth seeing if you like early animation, early synths, or Expressionist paintings that move. Possibly NSFW (contains lots of drawings of a symbolic nude lady)

Rewatching the Disney Little Mermaid. I'd forgotten how they get out of Ursula's triumph at the end, but apparently Prince Eric had read The Call of Cthuhlu as a teenager.

Also, this may be the only fantasy I can think of off the top of my head where the protagonist gets to stay in the exotic world she always dreamt of -- in most stories she Sees the Error of Her Ways and spends the second half of the story trying to get home.

Occasionally I watch the CGI Clone Wars show on Teletoon with green_trilobite. I'm not wild about the animation style, though I don't hate it either. I find I like the writing, though: it's one of the few things I've seen since B5 that shows characters actually engaging in politics - i.e., trying to form or break up alliances.

It's also the only thing I think I've seen that writes clones as individuals who just happen to all share the same genes; a literal band of brothers.

Visually, the clones look as though they use tattooing and varying hairstyles to individualize their standard-issue bodies as they use paint and decals to mod their armour; and the episode playing now is about them debating among themselves what to do about a CO who they realize is deliberately trying to get them killed. I'm not sure if they have different voice actors or one actor doing slightly different voices for each.

green_trilobite's mother passed away last night at the Versa Care nursing home. Once a talented artist and designer who corresponded with Buckminster Fuller (she had spotted a mathematical error in one of his books), and once had a radio play accepted by the CBC, Peggy had been in frail health and suffering from dementia for about two years. In keeping with her humanist principles, her body has been donated to the University of Toronto's medical school, and no funeral will be held, although an informal memorial get-together will likely be held in a few weeks' time. green_trilobite and I thank you all for your sympathy.

I've posted a short "Canadian History" vignette to youtube, for which Peggy did the animation - the figures are three-dimensional, cut and folded from heavy vulcanized paper manufactured as a liner for electrical sockets (she called these sculptures "Scoraform.")