The Silent Village
G 1943 · 36 min · ★ 6.8 · Documentary, Drama, History, War
The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.
Directed by Humphrey Jennings
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- A Arwel Michael Self
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This experiment was a “prestige advertisement” for Shell Motor Oil. As conventional animation became dominated by Walt Disney, many European filmmakers turned to puppets as an alternative, and Lye enlisted the help of avant-garde friends such as Humphrey Jennings and John Banting to make the amusing puppets. Exploring the still-complex color process, which involved the combination of three separate images, Lye creates such a vivid storm scene that reviewers hailed it as “proof that the color film has entered a new stage.” The music is Holst’s The Planets. - Harvard Film Archive
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