THE PIED PIPER (1986)
I would never call myself the biggest fan of animated films, but in 2023 I was lucky enough to see three brilliant, and completely different examples of the form. One of those films will feature highly in my top ten, whereas the other two films were both from the past; one was Hungarian, the other from Czechoslovakia. The Hungarian film is titled “Heroic Times” and is a medieval tale, where the animation style looks like animated oil paintings. I have never seen anything like it before, and it is simply astonishing to look at. It is a brilliant, brilliant film, but the Czechoslovakian film was amazingly, even better. Jiri Barta's “The Pied Piper”, from 1986, is simply out-of-this-world good, and was the best cinematic discovery I had in 2023. Sometime in the middle of the year, Deaf Crocodile posted a trailer for their new restoration of “The Pied Piper”. This was to be my first interaction with the film, and just from this minute trailer, I knew that both, the film was something very special, and that it was also going to be for me. I was right on both accounts. I immediately bought the blu ray for the film as soon as it became available, and totally fell in love with the film, and have already watched it three times.
The film is a Gothic retelling of the Pied Piper fairy tale, told via my favourite form of animation: stop motion. The film has also been heavily influenced by German expressionism, and particularly by Robert Wiene's seminal 1919 horror film, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. The film looks stunning, with the townsfolk and the Piper himself being rendered via detailed wood carvings. These are not realistic renditions, but rather grotesque approximations of the towns people who are obsessed with money and ripping off one's neighbour in an attempt to have more. They can never have enough money, and always need more.
The brilliant thing about “The Pied Piper” is that it is told totally dialogue-free. Sure the locals speak an unintelligible language (that is also never subtitled), but it is up to the visuals themselves to tell this dark version of the famous tale. In Barta's version here, he has done away with the revenge of the Piper being the kidnapping of the town's children until he leads them all to their deaths. Instead, he replaces the children with the townsfolk themselves, with his magical tune turning the disgusting locals into rats themselves that he can seduce and force them to jump from the local cliff to their deaths. You would think that removing the children's suffering, that Barta reduces the horror of the tale, but instead he adds to it one of the most horrific moments I have ever seen in an animated film, which is what finally gets the Piper to act out his revenge.
As I mentioned, all of the townsfolk are depicted as grotesque creatures, who care more about money than their fellow man. There are rendered in angular wood carvings, full of sharp edges, and we are left in no doubt that Barta does not want us to identify with these characters. Then towards the end of the film, a young woman enters the story, and she is rendered completely different than the towns people. She is soft, full of curves, and coloured in white rather than the brown, gold and red of the locals. She comes across as a like a princess in a fairy tale, but in reality she is just a farm girl, content in her life and unlike the rest of the town, as she has no interest in money. As you would expect, the Piper is drawn to her and her kindness. However it is through this princess-like character that the film's ultimate horror takes place, when the girl is viciously gang-raped by a group of the locals. Whilst this moment is not shown in any detail onscreen, it is horrific because you are left in no doubt as to exactly what has happened to this poor woman. To make matters worse, she is then murdered by the group after her ordeal. I was totally floored by this scene as I have never seen anything like it in an animated film before, even though the scene itself is barely graphic. It is all implied, but the result is still the same; you feel this moment through to your bones, and understand that the Piper does too.
I cannot stress enough just how brilliant this film is, and at only 55 minutes long, it is something of a miracle. I also need to mention Michael Kocab's amazing score; it is creepy, bizarre and other-worldly and it adds so much to this film. I absolutely loved Jiri Barta's “The Pied Piper”; it was the cinematic discovery of the year for me, and definitely the best film I saw in all of 2023.
No comments:
Post a Comment