Animatsiya in English

What does traditional Japanese poetry have in common with animation? Quite a lot, it turns out! Please read this, it's a fascinating thing...

Two years ago, I posted a translation of the first part of a wonderful interview that Yuriy Norshteyn gave to Tatyana Iensen for the sophisticated Kino-Art magazine in 2004. Now, I finally finished translating the second part (originally published in Russian, Kino-Art 2004, 4th issue).

Note: translation of verses are taken from various places; some from the internet, some my own translation of the Russian translations.

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What can you say about the condition in which your characters find themselves, in relation to life philosophy?

Both Basho and Chikusai are in that condition of having no fear of anything. One may say that they are in a state of total harmony. And so in the second half of this small film, there has to be an intersection of the beginning of terror and the humorous start. Not by accident does the wind rise and rip the kimono, and the hat fly above the trees with the leaves, in the finale of the film.

Sketch of Basho going against the wind

I was filming this little scene (Basho going against the wind) and thinking of King Lear. Why not film Lear in animation? The construction, clearness and fantastical conception of this story make it very suitable for animation. The construction is almost ballet-like; it is very natural for animation. Basically, the phenomenon of animation is based on how well you can find in a simple composition - not so much details and embellishments, but complex relationships which you will see as both the question and the answer to life, and maybe even as inculcation into as yet unknown territory. It seems to me, that in this sense "The Overcoat" is also very much a story-focused thing; clear and precise, like folklore that is molded into a parable-shaped state. The story of "King Lear" is parable-shaped, so you are freed of unneeded dramaturgical confusion (by the way, the Fool in this sense adds a lot to the composition). As soon as you begin to inquire into the details in Shakespeare, it all vanishes. I think that this is the precise reason for why when you are dealing with Japanese poetry, in which the action is clearly and unambiguously written in three lines, you are free; you do not need to rediscover the already disclosed action, but to find in it that which is hidden between the lines.
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For myself, I find that Norshteyn's words help me understand not specifically animation, but the essence of art itself.

Also, I may get quite a verbal bruising for saying this, but does anyone else see the similarities between traditional Japanese poetry and LOLcats? I'm seeing a connection between the old and the new; people, after all, don't really change much. Both forms strive for economy of expression, both are extremely simple on the surface, both can be humorous, both are or were very popular with the general public, and both are similarly light-footed and rely heavily on the listener/viewer making connections that are not self-evident if one looks at merely the obvious.

you_iggy asked about Yuriy Norshteyn's technique at norshtein, so I figured I'd make a quick post to answer. Here are some pictures of Norshteyn at work on "The Overcoat" in his studio:


Characters for future scene - "the arrival of the clerks"

Frame from film.( Read more... )
Here are some pictures of the work on Norshteyn's segment for the Japanese collaborative film "Winter Days" (2003):
(by the way, Norshteyn talks about the creation of his segment in this interview)


Sketches of Basho.

Norshteyn's workplace for "Winter Days". I have no idea about the location.( Read more... )

Cross-posted with The Animatsiya Community

In 2004, the Russian journal Kino Art published a lengthy interview with director Yuriy Norshteyn about his segment for the 2003 Japanese film "Winter Days" (the interviewer was Tatyana Iensen). Here's some more info about the film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Days

You can see his segment on Youtube over here.

Yuriy Norshteyn is perhaps the most revered animation director in Russia. He may be considered the conscience of the artform. He's been working intermittently on a feature film adaptation of Gogol's classic story "The Overcoat" since 1981 (half an hour of which, by the way, will be released by the end of this year). He works with his wife, Francesca Yarbusova, who does all of the final designs and art for his films (he directs, animates, and writes the scenario). For more information, here are two wikipedia articles about them (though they are a little misleading and not quite up to date):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Norshteyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francheska_Yarbusova

Last month, Anipages Daily (an excellent animation blog which focuses mostly on Japanese animation, but also on obscure gems from other places) published a translation of the interview. Most of the translation work was done by member Mihai Luchian, and it was touched up by Benjamin Ettinger (the webmaster). I've also gone over it (making a few changes to be more faithful to the original words), and translated the last question which was omitted from the version on Anipages. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I found the right words for the last question, so feel free to correct me.

This is a very long interview, so you should probably have an hour or so of free time. But I think it's worth it.

I'm also working on translating another interview with Norshteyn - hopefully it'll be finished within a week or two.
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(here's part two of the interview, which is translated as of June 18, 2009)

...and a fan of animation, be sure to visit the Second Moscow International Public Book Festival this Monday and Tuesday. Here are some interesting things from the schedule:

Monday
11:30 - Screening of the 2002 Czech stop-motion film Fimfarum
17:00 - Screening of three short films by Russian Oscar-winning animator Aleksandr Petrov and a few more which are worth seeing.

Tuesday:
11:30 - Screening of 2006 sequel Fimfarum 2
14:30 - Todor Dinov and the Masters of Bulgarian Animation
16:30 - definitely the jewel of the impressive schedule, the Russian premiere of Winter Days, a collection of short films by 35 master animators from around the world, including Yuriy Norshteyn, Aleksandr Petrov, Jacques Drouin, and many others, all organized by Kihachiro Kawamoto.

By the way, Norshteyn's segment from the latter film can be seen here:

"mad verse: in the withering gusts a wanderer - how much like Chikusai I have become!"

For a description of what Norshteyn is trying to portray there, see the "Winter Days" link above. Chikusai, as I understand it, is a character of folk literature in Japan - a joker of sorts. Perhaps bearing some similarity to Nasreddin in the Middle Eastern cultures, maybe not. In any case, in the segment above he meets Basho, the poet himself.

If anyone has the DVD of "Winter Days" and needs English subtitles, you can download them over here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?fjaym5yr4hi (contains GIFs and srt file for first 40 minutes)

The above link will expire after a while (perhaps a week or so), so if anyone still wants them after the link no longer works, please leave a comment. EDIT: The above link is now permanent.