N[eon]

This movie was not bad. It just wasn't appealing to me. I found the visuals to be a smokey, dreamy haze of seemingly random montages combined with a sort of eerie atmosphere. I felt like I was peering into the walls of someone's nightmare. The director made tasteful use of nudity and it was not received as anything other than a sort of nakedness one would show when they do not have need for hiding anything. It was easily identifiable as the kind of imagery one might have during a dream. But what was the underlying story? What sort of plot were we being offered? The narrator has a whispering, drone-like quality which add to the mystery of the Writer/Director's motivation for making this film. To me, there is something interesting here, but I just cannot put my finger on the pulse of it. What was the intended take-away as a viewer? Perhaps I'll have to watch it again with more focus on the narration.

I caught this beauty at Frighfest in 2004, as soon as I saw that a film by Dave Mckean was gonna be shown I almost wet my pants. His art and writing skills are seemingly only surpassed by his film making prowess.

This is one of the most beautiful and mysterious shorts committed to film. Visuals are more like a moving painting than anything else I've seen. There are certainly elements of films like City of Lost Children in there, but taken to another level. Visually only Casshern comes close to this, for sheer depth of vision. It just shows you what is possible for people to achieve with some imagination. Too many film makers seem to want to use digital effects to create the most realistic looking sets/ extras/ stunts, when they should be concentrating on making it look as interesting as possible.

N(eon) is a rare treat and anyone who has ever read any of Mr Mckean's solo works or collaborations with Neil Gaiman, should not miss a chance to watch this.

Also check out their latest project Mirrormask, coming soon...