Oddball Films presents Strange Sinema
63: Weirdest Animated Hits! oddities from the Oddball Archives featuring
new finds, buried junk, weird smut and miscellaneous moving image mayhem.
Tonight’s program is a surreal sampling of the weirdest, most
entertaining, and offbeat animated “hits” from the broad range of Strange
Sinema programs. Films include: The Interview
(1960), the brilliant Ernest Pintoff beatnik rant, Help My Snowman is
Burning Down (1964), Carson Davidson’s surreal short about a man living
on a boat dock with only bathroom furnishings (With music by the Gerry Mulligan
Quartet); Closed Mondays (1974), Will “California Raisins” Vinton’s
breakthrough claymation tour de force; Ersatz (1966), brilliant
and funny mid-century Croatian Oscar-winning wonder; Bruno Bozetto’s Italian
“psychedelic screwball” wonder Mr. Rossi Buys a Car (1966);
Kosmodrome 1999, kooky Eastern European spoof of everyday
space travel, Hunger (1974), mesmerizing pop art
computer animated short, The Calypso Singer (1966), bongo beatin’
beatnik tells the “Day-O” yelling calypso singer to cool it, The Wizard
of Speed and Time (1979) Mike Jitlov’s high speed mind-blowing
magical short; Fantasy (1975), San Francisco filmmaker Vince
Collins way-out and weird animated psychedelic trip fest, Your Face
(1987) one of the most popular short films ever made, this film started the
career of famed animator Bill Plympton, Thank You Mask Man (1968)
the legendary animated short by satirist Lenny Bruce. Watch Tonto and the Lone
Ranger let it all hang out in Bruce’s take on sex and race! Plus! Blame
it on the Samba (1948) a mesmerizing Technicolor mix of live action and
animation created by Walt D*sney and starring Ethel Smith, the Dinning Sisters
and a dizzying array of animated characters.
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013 at
8:00PM.
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp
Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or
programming@oddballfilm.com
Featuring:
The Interview
(Color, 1960) dir. Ernest Pintoff
Animated short by the brilliant Ernie Pintoff has
square interviewer befuddled by fictional hipster jazz musician Shorty
Petterstein (voiced by Henry Jacobs) as the Stan Getz combo blows and riffs
“off camera”. “Like, don’t hang me- I didn’t wanna fall up here in the
first place!”
Help, My Snowman’s Burning
Down (Color, 1964)
Academy award-nominated short by Carson Davidson
starring Bob Larkin (later in the cult film Putney Swope). A beatnik
lives on a boat dock off Manhattan with only bathroom furnishings. Stop
motion and surreal effects, original music by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.
Recently restored by the Academy Film Archive.
Closed Mondays (Color,
1974)
This breakthrough film created by Will Vinton
(The California Raisins) and Bob Gardiner won an Academy Award in 1975. In an
after-hours visit to an art museum, a drunken man encounters the world of
modern art. As he wanders through the gallery, paintings and sculptures shift
from illusion to reality, an abstract painting explodes with rhythmic movement,
a Rousseau jungle releases its captive images, a Dutch scrub woman talks about
her plight, and a kinetic sculpture comes briefly and breathtakingly to life. A
tour-de-force of clay animation that set the standard for Claymation as an art
form.
Ersatz (Substitute)
(Color, 1961)
Winner of the Academy Award for best animated
short, this beautifully animated mid-century piece is something else! The
first non-US animated short to win the Oscar, this Croatian film by Dusan
Vukotic took the States by storm and influenced many artists. Cute little
guy goes to the beach and inflates everything he needs (and doesn’t need), from
a raft, to a girl, a shark and so on…
Mr. Rossi Buys A Car
(Color,1966)
Italy was not well known as a hotbed of animation
in the 60’s, with the exception of Bruno Bozetto’s (Allegro Non Troppo)
great series of psychedelic screwball shorts starring the “everyman” Mr. Rossi.
Unbelievable ani,ated hijinks with appropriately off kilter soundscore.
Hunger (Color, 1974)
Brilliant, disturbing, landmark early computer
animation by Peter Foldes. Characters morph and cannibalize in this mesmerizing
Pop Art short, with a super cool soundtrack by Pierre Brault. A must see.
Kosmodrome 1999
(Dir. Frantisek Vystreil, Color, 1968)
The year is 1999. Interstellar travel is so
commonplace; hordes of commuters shuttle about on rockets as casually as they
commute from SF to LA today.
The Calypso Singer
(Color, 1966)
Paul Glickman’s animated version of legendary
hipster Stan Freberg's parody of Harry Belafonte's top ten hit “Day-O” (The
Banana Boat Song). Here a beatnik bongo player berates a Calypso singer for his
high decibel delivery. Freeberg was famous for his early rock and roll parodies
and went on to win over 20 Clio awards in the field of advertising for his
wacky takes on pop culture. Hilariously weird.
The Wizard of Speed and Time (Color,
1979, Mike Jitlov)
A young man in a green wizard costume runs
throughout America at super speed. Along the way, he gives a pretty girl a
swift lift to another city, gives golden stars to other women who want a trip
themselves and then slips on a banana-peel, and comically crashes into a film
stage, which he then brings to life in magical ways.
A mind-blowing short-later extended to a feature
length film.
Fantasy (Color,
1975, Vince Collins)
A hallucinatory handmade animated film from San
Francisco animation legend Vince Collins evokes his particular brand of
surrealist psychedelia. Mind-blowing!
Your Face (1987)
This film set the style and started career of famed animator Bill Plympton. One
of the most popular short films ever made, it’s still showing all over the
world. As a second- rate crooner sings about the beauties of his lover’s face,
his own face metamorphosizes into the most surreal shapes and contortions
imaginable. The music was written and sung by Maureen McElheron, then slowed to
sound like a man’s voice because Plympton was too cheap to hire a male singer.
Your Face earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short in 1988.
Thank You Mask Man (Color,
1968)
Before George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Redd Fox
there was Lenny Bruce. This legendary animated short by the infamous
comedian and satirist Lenny Bruce is a vivid send up on race, class and
sexuality. Watch as Tonto and the Lone Ranger’s let it all hang out. Like crazy
man.
Blame it on the Samba
(Color, 1948) A unforgettable and mesmerizing Technicolor film mix of live
action and animation featuring Ethel Smith, the Dinning Sisters and a dizzying
array of animated characters. Produced by Walt D*sney