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Best of the Best - Romantic Tales

Best of the Best - Romantic Tales

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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color
  • Animated


Description:

The most interesting films in this collection involve unusual media that produce visuals unlike cartoon animation. Caroline Leaf brought life to figures painted on underlit glass in "The Street" (1976), her justly celebrated adaptation of a story by Mordecai Richler. Wendy Tilby employs the same technique to achieve a very different mood in her gracefully nostalgic "Strings" (1991). In his seminal "Pas de Deux" (1968) Norman McLaren used step printing and other optical processes to reveal patterns within dancers' movements. A striking study in black and white, "Pas de Deux" retains the power and grace that earned it an Oscar nomination more than 30 years ago. Ryan Larkin's "Walking" (1969) is a celebration of observation and motion--muscular athletes, elegant models, rambunctious kids, people on street corners display their unique styles of movement in this plotless short. Not all the films on Romantic Tales have aged as gracefully. E.B. White's narration of his 1937 New Yorker story, "The Family That Dwelt Apart," is more interesting than the funky, retro-styled animation of the 1974 short. The pacing is so slow and the points so drawn out that the anti-smoking message in "The Drag" (1963) gets lost along the way. But the better films more than compensate for the weaker ones, and any serious student of animation will want this disc. Unrated, it is suitable for ages 12 and older: brief nudity, violence, and adult themes. Complete contents: 1. A Chairy Tale, 2. George and Rosemary, 3. Strings, 4. Bob's Birthday, 5. The Street, 6. Walking, 7. Pas De Deux, 8. The Romance of Transportation in Canada, 9. The Drag, 10. The Family That Dwelt Apart. --Charles Solomon
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