Rum and Popcorn

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Trains

Archive footage spanning decades of European train journeys. This was an interesting effort but I’m not sure it was edited as tightly as it could have been. After a pretty tense and at times gruesome middle section which covered the war wounded, Nazis on a train and all that Nazis do, the final third or so just sort of fizzled out.

Though I could imagine it’d be pretty cool with live music accompaniment.

World Animation Competition 2

And part 2! A slightly weaker selection to my mind, with all 3 of my favourites coming from the other programme. Star for me here was the lovely handmade vibe of Progress Mining

Monday morning at the Progress Mining Company is a decaying, cubist nightmare of monotony. As one worker shows round a new employer, another campaigns for its closure and reconstruction, as the long-buried secrets of Sector Three quickly come to light.

World Animation Competition 1

Animation Part 1. It’s always a favourite, and always pretty hard to describe.
My favourite by some way was Retirement Plan:

Ray daydreams about how to spend his retirement once he finally has some free time. Wonderfully simple in style yet capturing a world of emotion as we delve through his list; this moving and sweet short invites us to consider how to live before the inevitable.

Anything That Moves

A love-letter to 70s and 80s giallo slashers. A mood, more than a story.

The story, such as it is, is ridiculous. Liam is a food delivery rider who provides services on the side. He’s good at his job and in high demand from a series of Chicago oddities, all keen to satisfy their kinks and perversions, with a pizza on the side. But what’s this? Clients are being brutally murdered? And Liam’s in the frame? The brutish police are closing in, a leather-gloved lurker holds a knife, it’s all getting dangerous.

I loved it. It made almost no sense but it was funny, rude, and fun to watch.

Dog of God

Pros:

Cons:

I do think there’s a good film in there, and a lot of talent, but this was too muddled for me. The werewolf plot, evil priest plot, witchcraft plot and impotent baron plot were basically all separate stories. In trying to do them all, none of them went very far.