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Alternative Oscar

Each year the Academy Awards seem to take another dive in credibility. This year about five films got nominated, sharing all the big awards betwixt them. Yup, the Oscars believe There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Atonement, Juno and No Country for Old Men are basically the only films worth seeing in 2007.On the fringes of the red carpet though are a few independent, alternative films that may genuinely be the best of the year. Scrounging around at the tail-end of the nomination list in the Animated Short Film and Best Live Action categories can bring up some gems.”Madame Tulti-Pulti” up for Best Animated Short Film is one. It’s a stop-motion, animated film using puppets. Instead of googly, plastic peepers for eyes, human ones flicker in their stead. This was accomplished by merging an actor’s eye movement with a puppets. The film is devoid of dialogue, but the eyes accomplish the subtle art of subtext perfectly. This choice makes sense considering “Madame Tulti-Pulti” takes place on a train, where passengers are usually silent, yet still curious, sussing each other out with brief, furtive glances.The plotline features woman riding a night train with all her earthly possessions. The film actually scared me in its similarity to an experience I had on a night train from Florence to Venice. Just before boarding my boyfriend related, quite nonchalently, how he heard about a night train from Berlin to Zadar, Croatia on which the passengers had been gassed and stripped down to their undies unawares. I spent the next five hours with my passport stuffed down my trousers and one eye trained on the four other Italians sleeping around us. This film could possibly depict one of the many nightmarish scenes I imagined on that trip. The first half of the video is posted here, while Youtube has the other half. “Peter and the Wolf”, another stop motion animated short, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The story comes from Sergei Prokofiev, a Russian composer, who crafted the original piece in 1936. At that time, it featured both narration and music, but this version is silent except for the Philharmonie Orchestra that interjects at certain active or crucial points. The music fits the storyline well, as it alternates between playful moments - when Peter and his friends horse around, doing things they shouldn’t - and darker ones, when the boy is in quite serious danger of being eaten. While the story itself has a touch of the Brother Grimm about it, when Peter’s best friend is eaten by the wolf. Rather than slicing the wolf open and pulling out the consumed friend, which appears to be possible in other fairy tales, Peter forgives the wolf instead. This ending seems to me a little more instructive for an actual child viewer, than the cruel lessons of the Grimms or make-believe, Disney fluff. ”Peter and the Wolf” and “My Love” - another animated short - can both be found on Youtube!