Canadian Film Forum

Tabita · Trimis: 29/01/2010 01:33 Titlul subiectului: RYAN (2004) - Chris Landreth

Ryan (after 1st watch; it needs more than one)

It’s so cool. It’s grotesque,it’s funny,it’s sad.. so sad. Watching it I had the feeling of insecurity.. because of the many media used.. computer animation, animated drawings, animated paintings. I think there were some real bits also.. the hair looked very real. The switch from one to the other was disorienting. And Magritte’s “Son of Man” in the end was totally unexpected.

Grand_Shaman · Administrator Data inscrierii: 26/Oct/2007 Mesaje: 112

@ Tabitha

I'm glad you were touched by this film... No, there is no real film footage involved here. Everything was drawn and CGI-ed. With great art, I should say.

There is actually a 50-minute documentary entitled "Alter Egos" by Laurence Green featuring both Chris Landreth and Ryan Larkin, which "Explores the life and work of Ryan Larkin, as well as the making of Chris Landreth's short film Ryan (2004)" ([url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431607/]IMDB entry on "Alter Egos"[/url])

Read [url=http://flickchickcanada.blogspot.com/2009/10/canadian-film-review-ryan-alter-egos.html]this review[/url] to learn a few intriguing facts about Larkin's sexuality, or about the fact that he had been a disciple of Norman McLaren.

On the National Film Board website there's [url=http://www.onf.ca/film/spine_making_of_new_generation_animations/]a flick[/url] where you can see Chris Landreth's manner of work with his students. Even more captivating is [url=http://www.onf.ca/film/spine_making_of_story_genesis/]this interview[/url] where Landreth speaks of his manner of altering the character's facial and bodily features in order to let us see through their psychological condition (the way he did it in Ryan). He calls this "psycho-realism". Both films relate to Landreth's The Spine, but point to many issues common with Ryan.

Unfortunetely Ryan, who got a creative push from Chris into steering back into creating animation (and made one last film self-ironically entitled Small change), died just two years after his disciple won an Oscar with his innovative Ryan. A [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOKAHhGiO8E]short tribute[/url] was aired by CBS television on February 2007, including some haunting last images of a humble and apologetic Ryan...

(underlined words above are links, of course)

Gabi Rosus · Trimis: 07/07/2010 21:19 Titlul subiectului:

I found that the movie had scenes that were too much for my taste. It is true it very well done, but I do not like this kind of movies. For that matter I did not like The Fly either. But overcoming my repulse I think the movie was well done, with impressive scenes and a deep subject. I think a psychologist might have enjoyed it more. I hope I was not too blunt on my reply.