Boogie-Doodle

Boogie-Doodle

1941 · 4 min · ★ 6.1 · Animation

An animation film, made without the use of a camera, in which "boogie" played by Albert Ammons and "doodle" drawn by Norman McLaren combine to make a rhythmic, brightly colored film experiment. The main title is in eight languages.

Directed by Norman McLaren

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Boogie-Doodle

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Daedalus

Daedalus · 2024

MovieMusicMystery

"Fly too high and you will burn, go too low and you won't breathe." A 7 day vlog during the summer of 2023, a story of dreamers and drowners.

Neighbours

Neighbours · 1952

MovieComedyAnimation

In this Oscar-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.

Korean Alphabet

Korean Alphabet · 1967

Korean Alphabet

The Korean alphabet, illustrated with animation, spoken, and accompanied by music.

Ballet Adagio

Ballet Adagio · 1972

A slow-motion study by Norman McLaren of the pas-de-deux adagio, one of the most exacting and difficult dances of classical ballet. A ballet originally choreographed by the Russian ballet master Asaf Messerer is performed for this film by the internationally known Canadian pair, David and Anna Marie Holmes, to the music of Albinoni’s Adagio. A film to heighten the aesthetic appreciation of classical ballet and to afford observation of the technique and mechanics of the adagio movements.

Chants populaires nº 5

Chants populaires nº 5 · 1943

Chants populaires nº 5

MovieAnimationMusic

Alexandre Alexeïeff illustrated the song "Et moi je m'enfouiyais" (En passant) using the pinscreen technique. Norman McLaren illustrated "C'est l'aviron" using drawings on a fixed background, with the characters pasted in as they were drawn.

Opening Speech

Opening Speech · 1969

MovieAnimationComedy

Norman McLaren attempts to give the opening speech for the first Montreal International Film Festival, but his microphone won't cooperate.

Begone Dull Care

Begone Dull Care · 1949

Begone Dull Care

MovieAnimationMusic

In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.

A Little Phantasy on a 19th-century Painting

A Little Phantasy on a 19th-century Painting · 1946

A Little Phantasy on a 19th-century Painting

Taking "Isle of the Dead," a work by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin as his starting point, Norman McLaren creates a deeply disturbing surrealist dream.

Synchromy

Synchromy · 1971

The film's soundtrack is an original musical composition produced with synthetic sound - through photographing unusual geometric shapes and running them through an optical sound head. The images are an artistic rendering of this soundtrack.

Pas de Deux

Pas de Deux · 1968

MovieMusicDrama

Two ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal after-image visuals.

Blinkity Blank

Blinkity Blank · 1955

MovieAnimationMusic

A playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the retina of the eye, McLaren engraves pictures on blank film creating vivid, percussive effects.

Blackbird

Blackbird · 1958

MovieAnimationMusic

To the tune of a classic French-Canadian nonsense song, surreal blackbird made of lines loses body parts and gets them back threefold.

A Phantasy

A Phantasy · 1952

MovieFantasyAnimation

An animated film drawn entirely in pastels. Various fantastical plant-like things "grow" from the ground, eventually launching five spheres. The spheres drift in space while changing shapes and come back down to another setting, which eventually becomes more fantastical and symbolic than the opening one. The soundtrack has a jazz slant, with an ensemble of four saxophones and synthetic sound (i.e. sound created by drawing directly on the soundtrack).

Pinscreen

Pinscreen · 1973

MovieDocumentaryAnimation

Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows.

Dots

An experimental film in which both sound and visuals were created entirely by Norman McLaren drawing directly upon the film with ordinary pen and ink. The main title is in eight languages. Rereleased with multilingual titles in 1949.

Pen Point Percussion

Pen Point Percussion · 1951

Pen Point Percussion

MovieAnimationDocumentary

A documentary showing Norman McLaren working on the hand-drawn sound process he uses for his short film, Loops.

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Mothlight

Mothlight · 1963

Seemingly at random, the wings and other bits of moths and insects move rapidly across the screen. Most are brown or sepia; up close, we can see patterns within wings, similar to the veins in a leaf. Sometimes the images look like paper cutouts, like Matisse. Green objects occasionally appear. Most wings are translucent. The technique makes them appear to be stuck directly to the film.

Eye Myth

Eye Myth · 1967

After the title, a white screen gives way to a series of frames suggestive of abstract art, usually with one or two colors dominating and rapid change in the images. Two figures emerge from this jungle of color: the first, a shirtless man, appears twice, coming into focus, then disappearing behind the bursts and patterns of color, then reappearing; the second figure appears later, in the right foreground. This figure suggests someone older, someone of substance. The myth? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

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