Italian Animation Retrospective
Animated Gems from Italian Archives
Zadnji čistilec čevljev / L’ultimo Sciuscià
L'ultimo Sciuscià is the story of a little boy selling contraband cigarettes at street corners, constantly struggling against the difficulties of living a poor life. His only friend is his faithful little dog, Matteo. This cartoon constitutes a transition from the classic cartoony style to the more "mature" style that Gibba was trying to introduce in the animated medium, with an interesting alternation of humorous scenes and serious (and often sad) themes.
Minifilm 1
Free from advertising constraints and inspired by the cultural transformations taking place in the 1960s, Paul Campani and Massimino Garnier created the series Minifilms (1966-1974), one-minute animated shorts of grotesque humour,that were able to summarize all the characteristics and faults of modern man.
Gospod Rossi kupi avtomobil / Il sig. Rossi compra l' automobile / Mr. Rossi Buys a Car
Leaving his office, Mister Rossi suddenly realizes that nearly everyone out there owns a car. Feeling inferior to the others, he manages to get the driving license and, after paying tons of bills, he gets a car.
Življenje v škatli / Una vita in scatola / A Life in a Tin
From being born until his death, a man spends most of his time "imprisoned" in boxes.
Pulcinella / Punch
An animated cartoon about the uproarious adventures of Pulcinella, the Tuscan version of the puppet Punch. Like other Luzzati/Gianini films, the score is taken from an opera overture, Rossini’s The Turk in Italy.The animated film is an abbreviated, caricatured version of the opera. Pulcinella is the principal character who dreams himself into a wild nightmare that leads us through an abstract world.
Rotocalco
An indictment of the deformation of reality produced by the glossy pages of a big weekly topical. The reality is different from the stereotypical, fake, sparkling one constructed by certain magazines that the film graphically portrays, both with humour and pain.
Oblaki / Nuvole
In a deep lair, a white creature fights for survival. Dark creatures assault and tear it apart, but it is born again, gets bigger, until it becomes a big and throbbing efflorescence underground.
General gre v pekel / Il generale all’inferno / General Goes to Hell
An anti-war film inspired by Pablo Neruda’s poem "General Franco Goes to Hell".
