Tag: 1980s

Ciné Si: “Icare” [Cinema If: Icarus] (1989)

12 min; French (Chinese subtitles); dir. Michel Ocelot

[Note: This film can be viewed with English subtitles on the 2008 DVD, Les Trésors Cachés de Michel Ocelot, but it requires a region 2 DVD player]

Famed French animator Michel Ocelot’s episode “Icare” is one of eight from his 1989 TV anthology series Ciné Si (“Cinema If”) (sometimes also known as Princes et Princesses). It utilizes spare silhouette animation to tell the story of Icarus and his father’s flight of escape from King Minos. The myth is embedded in a larger frame story: every evening, an animated boy and a girl meet in an abandoned cinema to imagine new stories; with the help of an old projectionist and his pet owl, they use computers to choose a historical moment or piece of art as inspiration, then they define their characters, design costumes and music, and act out the stories as the main protagonists.

Ocelot depicts the myth in a positive light that celebrates the ideals of discovery, invention and transformation. Father and son formulate their plan to escape by using feathers to create wings, then make their escape from the labyrinth. Icarus proclaims he wants to be the first mortal to see the chariot of the sun as he flies, while his father pleads with him to save his strength and avoid being burned. After touching the chariot, he falls into the sea, but a dolphin rescues him and carries him to the shore! He then encounters two girls playing ball who resemble the famed Minoan “snake goddess” statuettes. In a scene very reminiscent of Odysseus’ encounter with Nausicaa in Odyssey 6, one girl runs away in fear but the other approaches the youth and welcomes him “to the shores of King Nikeas.” She identifies herself as Kallimera (modern Greek for “Good Morning”), a fish merchant’s daughter, and tells Icarus that she will believe his story of how he came to walk out of the sea if he tells it to her. The film ends with the two figures gazing at one another in profile as a triangular-shaped variation on the “iris out” technique encloses them and romantic music swells.

This romantic spin on the tale is wholly unique, and as the credits roll, a voiceover acknowledges that it is not that of the original. This choice may have softened the story for child audiences, or helped to incorporate a female element in the film.

More: https://web.archive.org/web/20080829185726/http://www.ghibliworld.com/michel_ocelot_interview.html#expand

https://www.michelocelot.fr/icare-en

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Invocation (1985)

4 min; English; dir. Lesley Keen

From Lesley Keen’s YouTube page: “Invocation originated as a sequence within the documentary Orpheus Through the Ages made by Pelicula Films to accompany Orpheus and Eurydice [her animated film from 1984]. It was designed to illustrate the Ancient Greek myth of the Creation of the world. It was shot on 16mm and subsequently enlarged onto 35mm for festival screenings. The techniques employed were a test run for those which ultimately were used within Ra; the Path of the Sun God [her feature film from 1990].” This film, like Orpheus and Eurydice, was made as commissions for UK’s Channel 4 in the 1980s.

What she does not mention here, but quickly becomes evident from the narration of the film (click for transcript), is that this is a variation on the Orphic myth of creation from ancient Greece, which differs significantly from the more canonical version of creation in Hesiod’s Theogony, which is known best to us moderns.

The mystery cult of Orphism was an alternative to traditional religion centered on the teachings of Orpheus, who acquired divine knowledge when he went to the underworld. The cult revered the god Dionysus (sometimes known as Zagreus), who, in this belief system, was born of the union of Persephone and Zeus, and who was killed and consumed as a baby by the Titans. Zeus blasted the Titans with a thunderbolt and humans were formed from the resulting soot, which contained a bodily element from the remains of the Titans and a divine element from those of Dionysus. Initiation into the cult allowed humans to transcend this evil, bodily element and break the grievous cycle of reincarnation to which we are subject.

In Orphic belief, there were other, less familiar entities who facilitated the emergence of creation long before Zeus and the Titans came into being. These include Time, Necessity, and Aether, who created the cosmic egg, out of which Phanes (sometimes Eros), a bisexual deity, was born. Phanes’s union with Night gave rise to Heaven and Earth (aka Ouranos and Gaia) who then created the Titans and Zeus. Zeus then consumed Phanes and recreated the world. It was then that the birth of Dionysus outlined above took place.

Impressively, all of this is represented in dynamic terms in Keen’s mesmerizing experimental film, and in less than four minutes. Using simple line drawings on a black background, colors and symbols in motion, and an alien-inspired synth soundscape, she brings to life one of the most mysterious myths of the ancient world.

More: https://greatwomenanimators.com/lesley-keen/

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The Smurfs: “The Smurf Odyssey” (1989)

English / 23 min / Season 9, Episode 7B

An exceptionally detailed plot summary can be found here: https://smurfs.fandom.com/wiki/The_Smurf_Odyssey

“The Smurf Odyssey” is part of the final season of The Smurfs TV show, which deviated from past seasons by featuring time-travel episodes, including several set in the ancient world, such as “Hogapatra’s Beauty Sleep,” “Trojan Smurfs,” and “Gnoman Holiday.”

This episode, in which the Smurfs help a reluctant Hermes, son of Zeus and Hera, as he attempts to complete a coming-of-age quest so that he may prove himself worthy of his divinity, is a remix of various epic narratives. It is actually structured more explicitly around the story of Jason and the Argonauts, in particular the version of the story told in the 1963 Don Chaffey film that featured the creatures of Ray Harryhausen, rather than Homer’s Odyssey. Retrieving the fleece is the main aim of Hermes’ quest, and along the way the gods on Olympus watch his progress in a reflective pool of water, like in the film. They travel on a ship with a talking “spirit guide” named Sylvia, recalling Athena in the film; they also encounter a hydra and in a direct nod to the film, they battle a legion of skeletons that come to life from stalactites that fall to the ground in a cave!

Their encounter with a Cyclops is the only Odyssean element featured in the episode, but this Cyclops turns out to be a lonely scaredy-cat who is in need of friends. After befriending the Smurfs, the Cyclops (whom they affectionately call Loomis?) helps them out in their fight against the skeletons.

The final task of the quest is to sail to Gorgon Island and face the monsters that turn people to stone who are guarding the fleece. This aspect draws on the legend of Perseus, of course, and the Pegasus also plays a prominent role throughout the episode. Hermes finally shows off his bravery and heroism when he rescues the Smurfs who have been turned to stone and takes the fleece, and happily he is rewarded with divine status by his father at the end of the episode.

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Sisyphus and his Stones, or Love and the Burden – The Love Burden [Sisyphos und seine Steine, oder die Liebe und die Bürde – die Liebe Bürde] (1986)

6 min. / no dialog / Director: Sieglinde Hamacher / DEFA Studio for Animation Films

In this episodic and roughly-drawn short set to moody synth music, a mountain comes to life and throws boulders at a nude man who is hiding in a cave. He runs away but cannot avoid the rocks. The mountain deity points to a peak and the man begins to roll one of the boulders toward it. He struggles mightily; the boulder falls back over him and rolls down the hill. He tries again. This time the boulder comes to life — it has a face. The man pushes it more easily, but the boulder tricks the man and rolls back down the hill. Now the man has grown older; he has a beard. He begins again with the personified boulder. They rest and the man wipes sweat from his own face as well as the boulder’s. The boulder smiles as it rolls down again and the man follows behind. The man’s beard grows long and he acquires a cane, but now he easily rolls the boulder up the hill. They seem to enjoy working together and the boulder aids the man in his efforts, even helping him up the hill at times. The man finally succeeds in getting the rock to the top, and celebrates for a moment before it falls screaming into a sea below. This upsets the man and we see him break down in tears. The film ends with the man rolling a new boulder up the hill as the credits roll.

Duo Sonnenschirm wrote the script for this short animated film from “the deep GDR times.” It varies somewhat from the film. Read it here: https://www.duosonnenschirm.de/textarchiv_zwo/sisyphos.php

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