304. Frame Rate: Fantastic Planet (Feat. David Christopher Bell)
Added 2020-07-27 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
Michael, Abe, and Dave are entranced by the 1973 animated French-Czechoslovakian film Fantastic Planet and its sci-fi, psychedelic landscapes. They deconstruct the larger metaphor of the film and stare into its general weirdness. It’s in the Criterion Collection, so it must be important!
Everyone thank minefreak555 for generously donating toward this episode. We love you, you freak of mine.
Features:
David Christopher Bell: https://twitter.com/MovieHooligan
Michael Swaim: https://twitter.com/SWAIM_CORP
Abe Epperson: https://twitter.com/AbeTheMighty
Comments
Interesting take! The script spells it "Oms" so I'm not sure it's exactly just that. I could definitely see it meaning both things. -ABE
Small Beans
2020-07-29 13:34:33 +0000 UTCHey Beans, i think part of the significance of Ohm went right over your heads. Ohms are the unit for electrical resistance. Whether they chose that name themselves or it was given by their oppressors, i'm not sure as i haven't seen this particular film; but either way, it's definitely metaphor calling the lesser a "resistance;" Much like in the real world, we're seeing Trump continually label pritesters as "rioters," "looters," among other distasteful propaganda phrases. It's part of what's establishing the Ohms as the "other"
James Duf
2020-07-29 13:30:20 +0000 UTCNice ep. The snickering creature seems to be sadism, bloodlust, violence-for-power; the shot lingers on the dead on the ground, outside the cage, so it clearly isn't killing for sustenance. The central quality of the Draag's that jumped out to me was how desperately (and becoming louder and louder in the 'Senate') they were trying to maintain and defend their belief that the Om's were unintelligent, despite clear and mounting evidence of their intelligence. i.e. normalization of beliefs that a marginalized group lack personhood, and so they may be mistreated - such that no one cares that the children carelessly kill a mother in the very first sequence. Vonnegut's 'filing away gears' on societal level - or keeping the established racket going. The director organizing puppetshows for the psych patients (in the 60s or whatever) seems to demonstrate his underlying compassion, when the time was dominated by lobotomization and institutionalization - 'removing' the problem from where the populace can see them, not treating them as persons.
Andrew Marinus
2020-07-28 04:25:12 +0000 UTCI've heard good things about Tale of Tales. I haven't heard about La Casa Lobo. Thanks for the suggestions! - Abe
Small Beans
2020-07-28 01:24:03 +0000 UTCGreat ep! I think the legibility of the movie doesn't mitigate its trippiness, since it's not as if the experience of a drug trip is entirely detached from reality. Psychedelics tend to emphasize the connection between material and abstract concepts, so in a way image driven allegory is a very natural way of expressing that kind of thought process. Hope you get the chance to cover more different styles of animation, it's such a fruitful medium. (Sort of in this vein of using experimental animation to explore history and subjective experience I highly recommend checking out Yuri Norstein's Tale of Tales and the more recent La Casa Lobo if you haven't had the chance.)
Arlo
2020-07-28 00:53:11 +0000 UTCSo glad I finally saw this! Thank YOU - Swaim
Small Beans
2020-07-27 19:05:09 +0000 UTCThank you!
minefreak555
2020-07-27 15:19:30 +0000 UTC
