A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
French and French-language Films
Ines Scheiber, Jules Durand, Julien Becquer, Elena Dupressoir, Viviane Guimaraes, “Memo” (2017) A very touching film on Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on sufferers’ daily lives,…
Bill Tytla, “Little Audrey – Tarts and Flowers” (1950) Part of a series of cartoons about a cute kindergarten-aged girl called … well, what else? ……
Sid Marcus, “The Mad Hatter” (1940) Mocking the faddish nature of women’s fashions, this animated short can be surprisingly critical of the nature of everyday work…
Laura Neuvonen, “The Last Knit” (2005) Technically this digital animated short is well done but the very simple plot of a woman addicted to knitting a…
Dave Fleischer, “All’s Fair at the Fair” (1938) Best known for their Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, US animators Max and Dave Fleischer occasionally made animated…
Harold M Shaw, “The Land Beyond the Sunset” (1912) Made in 1912 – the same year in which the Titanic set sail for its fateful meeting…
Wladyslaw Starewicz, “The Beautiful Leukanida / Prekrasnaya Lyukanida” (1912) In a long career spanning some 55 years in stop-motion puppet animation, Russian-Polish animator Wladyslaw Starewicz produced…
French and French-language Films
Wladyslaw Starewicz, “The Mascot / Fétiche Mascotte ” (1933) An amazing and brilliant short work of stop-motion animation, “The Mascot” is one of several masterpieces made…
Wladyslaw Starewicz, “The Cameraman’s Revenge” (1912) A deftly crafted and delightful animation short, this silent film comments on human foibles as performed by realistic insect puppets…
Otto Messmer, “Feline Follies” (1919) By no means a great cartoon or even a mildly interesting one, this animated short is notable mainly for the first…