[Animation] ‘Labyrinth’ (1963) by Jan Leniča
Saturday, January 30th, 2010When I first watched this animated short film, my knee-jerk reaction was: This would be just the perfect style of art direction if The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov were ever to adapted into animation. (Has anyone read that book?)
Labyrinth (1963) was an award-winner at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 1963. The plot (as far as I could make out) goes something like this: A flying man descends on an entirely deserted city where the only other man seems to have his body encased in a machine. In the city, his encounter with the fair sex seems rather unfortunate – the first lady prefers the embrace of a beast, the second lady devours his flesh. Then he undergoes (among other things) some kind of brainwashing experiment, after which he kisses a bird in the mouth. Finally he flies, leaving the deserted city, only to be devoured by black birds in the sky…
May I also add that the background music sounds very… Alban Berg? If you like that sort of music that gives off a macabre vibe, you may also like to check out György Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre. (Has anyone listened to Alban Berg and György Ligeti?)
