Masters of Russian Animation Man in the Frame (1966) (dir. Fyodor Khitruk) Director Fyodor Khitruk’s second short on this disc is about a single man who spends his days boxed in by a frame, hanging as a picture on the wall of life. The first frame he has is simple and non-descript, but as he gets older and makes his way up the ladder of government bureaucracy, the frame becomes more ornate, yet never really any bigger. Finally, in a critical moment to possibly find meaning at the end of his life, having reached the top of the working world, he ignores a desperate cry for help coming from outside his comfortable dwelling. This immediately leads to a final ascent heavenward, where the man sees objects passing him from earlier in his life – statues collected, papers signed, a woman he once loved, and finally, the playfulness and freedom of a child jumping rope (all images from earlier in the film). The film concludes with this high government official being boxed in by ever smaller frames – a surprisingly tragic ending that is intriguing for its critical perspective of the government, or at least those who work in it. The animation here varies between traditional hand drawn and actual photographic images. His co-workers sometimes appear to be cut-outs or shadow puppets, a la Lotte Reiniger’s Prince Achmed. The photographs come primarily near the beginning of the film in a sequence that stands out due to its rapid editing of what appear to be disconnected images of life in general. I was reminded of the beginning of Bergman’s Persona in this sequence, though here the images are much more life affirming than those from Bergman. Later, the still image of the girl jumping rope comes back, and the camera dwells on this image of freedom, with a simple up and down motion over the picture to give the sense of movement, something the man in the frame never really experienced. https://youtube/watch?v=f29hdIVV0qk
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 07:34:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015