Since I became a member of the website icheckmovies.com I have been obsessed with checking movies from various lists. The fastest way to check a movie without cheating is to watch a short movie, thus I have watched a lot of those lately. Honestly, many of them aren't that good, but sometimes I come across fantastically unique ones. So here's my Top 5 list of short movie with a running time between five and ten minutes.
Nr. 5: Powers of Ten (1977)
This is a fascinating video for a fan of science. It's about the infinity of the universe. You might think something is really huge, like the earth, while compared to something else, a star for example, it isn't. But that star is also small compared to something even bigger etc. Same goes the other way, there is always something smaller.
Nr. 4: Snow-White (1933)
I didn't know old cartoons could be so insane and. Great. This animated short features betty boop in a version very loosely based on the fairy tale "Snow White". Great animation (single handed by Roland Crandall) and a very imaginative plot makes this one of my favorite shorts of all time.
Snow-White (Dave Fleischer)
Nr. 3: Balance (1989)
This is creepy, and I love it. On a platform in the universe, strange men are having a "fight" about a mystical box. Reminds me of a game of chess, it's rather a psychological fight than a physical one.
Nr. 2: Neighbours (1952)
In this experimental short there is also some kind of a fight. Two neighbours are having an argument about a flower that suddenly grows up right between their gardens. Both of them want the flower for themselves. If you haven't seen this or any other Norman McLaren film, I believe you haven't seen anything like it.
Neighbours (Norman McLaren)
Nr. 1: Vincent (1982)
While the above mentioned might be equally amazing, it's clear to me that this is my favorite short of all time. I love the poetic narration, the dark style of the animation and music and of course the dramatic story itself.
Vincent (Tim Burton)
Here's a longer list of my favorite shorts: http://www.imdb.com/list/AInC-p1XKxg/
Great idea for a blog. I've seen Vincent, Powers of 10 and Balance from this list. I really like all of them, and Powers of 10 is simply mind-blowing. I'll definitely watch the other two.
ReplyDeleteI see from your IMDb list that you also like The Island of Flowers, which is one of my favourite shorts.
A few recommendations:
Czech animators are the best in the world IMHO. Jan Svankmajer, Jiri Barta and Jiri Trnka are all amazing.
The films of Yuri Norshtien are fantastic, especially Tale of Tales and Hedgehog in the Fog
My personal favourite short film is The House is Black; an Iranian poetic pseudo-documentary about leprosy.
Pretty much all of these are available on youtube.
Thanks, that's great to hear!
DeleteYes, The Island of Flowers will probably end up in a list of my favorite shorts with a running time of over 10 minutes if I make one in the future.
I have seen a few Svankmajer shorts and hedgehog in the fog. Svankmajer shorts is so creepy I don't know what to think of them. :) I'll have to check out the other ones you mentioned.
Thanks for the comment and I hope you'll continue visiting this blog :)