I found this movie by complete happenstance, at the convenience store around the corner from my place.It was pretty damn good. Dark Crystal good. The lighting was absolutely fucking brilliant. The entire film was done with marionettes that know that they're marionettes; that's the whole basis of the movie, or rather the thing that 'ties' it all together. (har har - but no, seriously) Kind of a morbid Lion King storyline, with some really desolate and depressing scenes. It was really well done, both the puppeteering and the story itself:
King kills himself, leaves his kingdom to his son with a very Gladiator-style hope (peace), evil brother corrupts it and spawns war by saying the king was assassinated by the rival nation, then a long character-building process of discovery for the disposed heir. That sounds cliche and "meh", but it was quite well done.
I'm so glad that arts like these haven't been lost, despite the fact the movie could have been done using pixar 3-D animation, without marionettes. I often worry if we've entered an age where "art for art's sake" no longer holds true. Movies like "Strings" give me hope. Then I think of 90% of the other movies out there and I get frustrated with the world's lack of vision and authenticity.(For some odd reason, two of the only pictures I could find of the movie had Ghrak, a henchman, in it. He was a cool character, but c'mon.)
2 comments:
So we were at the video store last night, looking for Fred Astaire movies but since we couldn't find any, I recalled your post. They actually had one copy of "Strings" so we took it home.
I must say it was unlike anything I had ever seen. We loved it.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm glad you liked it! I was just amazed by the skill of the puppeteers, and the camera-work and lighting were fabulous. Cool story, too.
Hey, we need to hook up for a pint! I'll fire you an email.
Post a Comment