Anima
What is the narrative?
This musical styled short film raises many questions however trying to find the meaning of it is possibly the most confusing. From what I can see from this 15 minute video, it appears to be that of a man who has found a lost box on a subway train and then proceeded to attempt to find the person who left it behind. There are many possibilities for the narrative of this short film which consists of ideas such as a man trying to fix his own life or simply trying to escape from the normative of everyday society, which is quite clearly shown by the mirrored movements of everyone around him. An idea which came to mind was that the man is remembering something which happened between himself and his partner but after reading several other reviews on the short, the best description that I can find about it would be that its ‘a sense of anxiety… expressed through a dystopian environment’.
How is music used to create emotion?
The music within the short seems to create a sort of melodramatic feeling which helps to make this video much more intriguing yet bizarre. The mysterious music moves in sync with everyone as they make weird motions which mirrors people sleeping on public transport. Later the music does move into a sort of ominous state, we then follow the main character around the many different locations as the other characters move to the flow and it seems that he is unable to fit in with the motion of it. Later on, it seems that the music calms down and the character begins to look bored and sort of fed up which fits to the end of the short as everything starts to come to a halt.
What do you like about it and why?
The parts that I like about this short film was mainly the music and how it gives a strange feeling to the actual short. The fact that it is also the creator of the song Thom Yorke who is the main character and the fact that obviously that its a short film which means that there isn’t really a script because nobody speaks and everything is conveyed via the medium of the choreography and the many different camera techniques which have been used. Another part that I like about it is how the main character is basically the odd one out within the world that he is in and how he is struggling to keep up with everybody else.
How does this inspire you? Why?
I think that the short does inspire me but not as much as I would have really expected. The style and camera angles are something that I really liked as its sort of confusing and peculiar to follow, the fact that they also actually had people on wires climbing is a really nice style of choreography. The fact that this whole thing conveys a much deeper meaning than what people had seemed to originally think is something which inspires me because there is something about hidden meanings to things like this which i have always enjoyed.
Jims Stuff 