Hello everyone to another Danny’s Picks.  Things have been quite busy the last few weeks with conventions and whatnot so I missed a few picks, but fear not as this week we’re getting back on schedule!  Today I’d like to share one of my favorite short films, “Tale of Tales” by the legendary Russian animator Yuri Norstein.

I won’t attempt to explain all of my opinions on the film here, but I will say that the film is an incredible study of both the individual human psyche and of human society as a whole.  The film is structured following memories, and as such the narrative is broken up into fragments of different stories connected by moments or objects of association, rather than a chronological timeline.  And incredible story and meaning aside, in order to truly appreciate how amazing this film is, one also has to learn a bit about the techniques used.  First of all, the entire film is 2D stop motion animation made in 1979, before any digital tools were developed.  However, Yuri Norstein uses an ingenious, unique technique with his stop motion that truly boggles the mind.  As wikipedia puts it:

Norshteyn uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away).

I will definitely be sharing his other famous film “Hedgehog in the Fog” in a future Danny’s Picks.  It’s another favorite film of mine, please look forward to it!

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