In spite of more than a century's worth of films, and even though directors tiredly repeat that their trade consists in relating stories, a sentence that we recently heard yet again just a few days ago during the Goya awards ceremony, literature still continues as the supposed natural narrative vehicle in the collective imagination. The cinematic genre itself succumbs to the temptation of showing pages as a prologue to a fantasy story, using the ever-famous "once-a-upon-a-time" written upon paper to then cross fade transition to a moving image. In the case of The Father, created by the North Korean collective, Sticky Monster Lab, both genres are integrated to form a complete unit.
We start out by viewing a book as a literary reference. But once said book is open, a subtle travelling close-up makes the desk disappear. Devoid of the usual spatial references, the page vanishes as a physical support and is transformed into a genuine audiovisual instrument, which permits the creation of parallel editing between two stories while maintaining a simultaneous representation. In other words, a motion effect created by the camera itself is sufficient to transform an object in a split screen. In digital society, centered on the intangibility of information, this leap is viewed as completely natural. For the precise reason, it is difficult to deduce the creative merit of this subtle camera trick.
But obviously, the more complex a scene is, higher is the necessity to have reference points to guide the eye through the jungle of simultaneous stimulations that unfold before the viewer. Once again, Sticky Monster Lab know that the best solution is almost always the most primitive: colour as the focal point. This allows them to gild the lily, constructing slight-of-hand "winks" between the two images, establish bridges and even, towards the end of the piece, have them cohabit. Meanwhile, they articulate a plot full of tenderness and cruelty, simulating real life; a post modern narrative tendency which was advanced, paradoxically, by novelists towards the end of XIX, just when the Lumière brothers changed human communication forever.
Credits:
Director: FLA
Line Producer: NANA
Art Director, Editor and Animator 3D: FLA
2D Animators: FLA, Joe
De
signers: FLA, BOO
Music: The Black Skirts (Dientes)
* Translation by: Vera Ciria
