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Reviews
Finding His Voice (1929)
Unique Self-Representation
This early synchronized sound animation provides a unique look at the history of the medium, especially the self-representation that is common to many animated works. This self-reflection is seen in two ways. First, in typical Fleischer Brothers style, we see the animator's "hand" towards the beginning of the film. The film shares several stylistic qualities with other Fleischer works, including the absence of shading.
The second occurrence of self-representation is in the subject matter of the film. Dr. Western guides Mutie through the Vitaphone sound recording and reproduction process. Fleischer made use of this process in producing Finding His Voice.
Begone Dull Care (1950)
One of the better works of abstract animation.
This film is one of the better works of abstract animation. McLaren succeeds at precisely timing his drawn-on-film animation to Peterson's music. Also, McLaren's mastery of depth in his painting is wonderful.
Le Cinquième Élément (1997)
Terry Gilliam?
The random and eclectic story made me almost believe that Terry Gilliam directed this film. I found the inter-cutting of parallel scenes interesting at first, but grew tired of it as the technique was over-used throughout the film. Towards the end of the film, this cross-cutting became too much of a nuisance to reaching the resolution of the film. Also, I found the the third act of the film to be overly contrived. The urgency of reaching Egypt was lost when Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) told the President that he would call back in two hours, and, "poof!", he arrived in Egypt.
Bresson overtly stated improperly the fifth element. From a classical Greek standpoint, the four basic elements are earth, water, fire and wind, which Bresson used correctly. However, for the Greeks, the fifth element was the "heavens;" all celestial bodies were composed of this uneartlhy element.