One evening, when I stayed in the church's office longer than usual and it was quite a late hour to call my family, I decided to search YouTube for a couple of animated films produced in the USSR, Treasure Island and Adventures of Captain Vrungel, which were very popular in 1980s--I felt like watching them again. As it usually happens in the Internet universe, one search lead to another and I ended up on the site rating Soviet and Russian animated films. I was amazed and pleased to discover how many respondents put on the best spot The Little Hedgehog in the Fog of 1975. This 10-minute film based on Sergei Kozlov's script, in 2003 was voted "No. 1 animated film of all time." I always loved this deceivingly simple but profoundly philosophic and highly poetic work, where answers are intended to be found, not just given away. In 1981, my mother happened to buy for my younger sister a book of short stories by Sergey Kozlov titled The Little Hedgehog in the Fog. I don't remember if I had already seen the film--I don't think it makes any difference--but when on one of my visits to my parents this book accidentally got into my hands and I read two-three stories, I felt like I found Atlantis or something. I borrowed the book to show my friends at the Asian Studies Department--most of us lived in the same dormitory. It was returned to my room a month or so later with visible signs that it had changed many hands. "Man, it's pure Zen," was all one of my fellow students, who was the first I gave the book to, could say. It is wonderful that this masterpiece is available on YouTube with English subtitles.
Another work that is considered one of the best animated films is There Once Was a Dog.
The Soviet and post-Soviet animators created a large number of outstanding films many of which have become an integral part of the cultural identity and contributed into the contemporary folklore. This short account would be incomplete without mentioning three films about Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends--Winnie-the-Pooh, Winnie-the-Pooh Goes Visiting, Winnie-the-Pooh And the Day of Concerns Part 1 and Part 2. Understandably translation is incapable to deliver all nuances of the narration and dialogues, yet the English subtitles these films are coming with are giving a pretty good grasp of the jokes and the language fabric.
P.S. After reading Jakes comment, I decided to add one more animated film which doesn't need translation at all. It's a very cute, warm and touching story. I always loved it to tears.
hi mikhail,
ReplyDeletei'm a descendent of one julie bauming who passed along your hedgehog post. below, i've copied what i sent her.
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hedgehog is a film which is always held up as one of the best in stop motion animation. i met the filmmaker in boston—his techniques were/are unparalleled and he had a completely different approach to filmmaking than western directors.
also top notch is mitten http://www.thephpvideoscript.com/demo/view_video_ykOx0-9ZkX4&feature=youtube_gdata.html i picked up a copy of this in japan (?!), with credits translated from russian. the argument had always been that american stop motion films of the same vintage were clunky because they had no way to test the animation as they were doing it; they were reliant upon dailies, at which point, you could only reshoot if the shot was completely unwatchable. rankin bass (big wigs in the pantheon of '60s stop motion) was crude, but charming and it was the de facto standard for quality.
then i found mitten. holy SHIT!!! there is nothing else like this film.
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i was first introduced to hedgehog in school, when i was studying animation. it made a huge impression, but it wasn't until i had been working for a number of years that the overall impact truly set in.
later, when i had moved to the states and was directing, a friend called to say that she had arranged for norshteyn to give a lecture for her animation studies class at havard. it was one of those transcendental experiences where you instantly realize you know nothing about your craft.
as for mitten, what i failed to mention was that the so-called benchmark for stop motion animation was erroneously supported by the argument that a better product wasn't achievable. from a technical standpoint, mitten shattered that myth—the animation in that film holds up 45 years later and reveals its american counterparts to have been produced by charlatans.
there was some incredible (animated) filmmaking going on in prague & zagreb —and a lesser extent, paris— by polish, czech and croatian animators in the '60s, but really, nothing holds a candle to the profound storytelling of norshteyn. and storytelling always trumps technique.
hope your situation is not unbearable.
—jake
Hi Jake,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't open the link you provided, but I assume that you meant this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykOx0-9ZkX4
It's always been one of my favorite, given that I watched it when I was quite young. Apart from the animation technique which I cannot fully appreciate not being a professional animator, it's a very warm and touching story.
I'm reading Hedgehog in the Fog in Russian (I don't know if it's ever been translated into English) and I can't believe how wonderful it is. I'm cracking up laughing at some of the adventures of the Little Hedgehog and his friends and at the same time I can feel the "Zen," as your friend put it. My Russian is at the intermediate-advanced level, so sometimes I need to look things up, but this book is so wonderful that it pulls a learner along -- I'm so eager to understand what's happening that the "work" of understanding the Russian doesn't feel like work at all. Just wanted to share this with you since I saw your heartfelt comments on the book. And thanks for the animation recs; I'll definitely be checking them out.
ReplyDeleteOh my God. I didn't know your situation when I ran across your blog -- I was just searching for Hedgehog in the Fog. The blog entries seem to stop in 2009, so I don't know what happened to you, but I pray that you and your family are all right.
ReplyDeletep.s. One last comment. I don't know if you still read this blog anymore, but I found a more recent article that said you're keeping a low profile so as not to antagonize the authorities. So I won't expect you to reply or even post these comments -- though I suppose the first one, about Hedgehog, wouldn't tick them off. Anyway, reply or no reply, I'll be praying for things to turn out all right for you.
ReplyDelete