Le Matelot volant

An Oscar-nominated 8-minute animated short film. I said wow. If an 8-minute animated short is nominated for an Oscar, I must watch it. Luckily it's uploaded on Youtube. I watched. I did not like at all. First of all, although the shooting style is different, it is very obvious that they use this style to win "awards". They did it this way to be "cool". The story is very simple. I didn't know anything about Halifax Explosion. My positive opinion about the movie was about this event. I'm going to investigate about this accident. It piqued my interest. But this movie was not good for me. The Oscar nomination was an exaggeration.

The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is an established fact, with devastation wrought that raised a hue and cry about spies. Amidst the tragedy, one sailor was found more than a mile from the harbor, naked. The story was that the explosion had ripped his clothes off and blown him about two kilometers, with no harm.

That's one explanation, although I can think of others. In any case, his story was accepted, and this Oscar-nominated short form Canada's National Film Board offers it as a cartoon.

In the past, the Oscar nominees for best animated shorts have been plagued with pieces that could have been done easily as live action. None of this year's fall under that curse, nor the one about "animated radio", a lecture with some pictures. Unfortunately, as beautiful as this is, it's not a story, it's an anecdote.

It's probably just as well that the eponymous sailor is long dead for I don't think he'd be terribly impressed with the body these animators have decided to give him! He is strolling the harbour of Halifax when a sudden explosion as two ships appear to collide propels him up into the air, strips him of his clothes and plonks him down in a tree some 3km from the site. As he travels we are treated to some reminiscences from his young life, his sailing career and as his life flashes before our eyes we enjoy a gently engaging score from Luigi Allemano that helps keep things moving. This isn't my favourite style of animation - I prefer a little more natural proportion, and I gather that in truth he kept his boots on too! It's quite watchable, but entirely forgettable - sorry.

This short takes a look at the kind of thoughts that might race through a sailor's head as he was carried through the air by a terrible explosion, such as the one that devastated the Nova Scotian town of Halifax in 1917. You may find yourself scoffing at its claims of truthfulness, but people in Halifax really were picked up by the explosion and deposited kilometers away. In any case, the short is moving and beautiful. Special attention should be paid to the soundscape, which combines a beautiful score with all the sounds a sailor might have heard throughout his life, from his childhood in a grimy port city to the moment two ships collided in a harbour, setting off thousands of tons of explosives.

In Halifax harbour, a colision between two ships. One of victims of explosion - a sailor jump, for two kilometers, pushed by blast. The skin of film - the life flashbacks, from childhood to the life in Marine, conflict against a mate, a game . And , again. Techical, more than interesting. But the end is so brutal than a sort of dessapointment becomes fair.

First , because it has an obscure purpose . To remind the explosion ? Maybe is it enough. To suggest an experience, eccentric , special, strange and a miraculous survive ? It just well works in this sense. Or, maybe, to offer one of stories so loved by inner child inside us . For this, just applauses.

In short, an Oscar nominated.

The only problem for me - the impecable survive, in his mouth, of...cigarette.