© Bill Plympton Studios , 2009 Idiots and Angels
Interview with Bill Plympton
www.filmmakermagazine.com
If Bill Plympton, animator twice nominated for an Oscar, had lived in Berlin in the early 20th century, it would probably sided with Dadaists such as George Grosz and Otto Dix, satirical artists whose mastery of the grotesque comic finds as reflected in the distorted visions, darkly comedy, daily life at this native of Oregon. Like his illustrious predecessors, Plympton is an illustrator and political cartoonist published widely, his eponymous comic started it thirty-five years in Soho Weekly , years before a clog celluloid. Ten years later, after being hacked in the animated short he created his first feature, The Tune [air], a personal film that made independent animation date (Plympton himself drew each picture. ) During the years that followed, he produced a series of short films MTV (including a memorable radio show called "Noodle Ear [Ear Noodle]) and two other feature films, I Married a Strange Person! , applauded by critics (listed at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998) and Hair High, with the voices of Sarah Silverman, David and Keith Carradine and Martha Plimpton, a relative. He also ventured into fiction film, commercial, continuing to draw, while seeking the same mixture of bizarre human ladle (mutant monsters, psychotic teens, bodily disfigurement) and intrigue surreal in his films. Last year [2009], Plympton has collaborated with Kanye West on an illustrated book of lyrics of the singer, entitled Through the Wire [Through the wire], a fusion of minds idiosyncratic artistic works much better than what one might think.
The latest attempt at Plympton, Idiots and Angels , is a wordless black comedy about the struggle of an arms dealer coarse, heavy smoker, with his ego better. Such unnamed is a kind of misanthrope who throws alarm clock on songbirds chirping at his window every morning and unleashes his rage on almost killing her Morning commuter counterparts. Its funny business with the hosts seedy local pub - a bartender filthy, his wife, charming, and a prostitute obese - are equally heavy and tinged with a violent imagination. Once planted the habits and character inherently evil character, Plympton introduced a horrible transformation that brings to mind the strange lump in her neck Grant Boyer I Married a Strange Person! : wings begin to grow in the back of the hero, after a larva was placed on his head and turns into a butterfly, forcing him to commit good deeds. Frustrated, he consult a surgeon who devises plans to exploit the appendices of this man for his own benefit. As always, inclined angles and the presentation of the carnivalesque body gladden the eye, accompanied by the chirping of Tom Waits lazy and sensual instrumental from Pink Martini, everything becomes a stylized expression of pathetic character and his character's inner turmoil . Merging the tables at the bar nightmarish Hubert Selby Junior with a touch of fantasy, Idiots and Angels is a parable of redemption, which subverts the good taste as hope.
Filmmaker spoke on Plympton perverse humor, the theme of man in the world, and why family films are not his thing. Idiots and Angels is planned Friday at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. IFC Center in New York organizes screenings until 2 November [2010].
- Filmmaker : Idiots and Angels is, in my opinion the best feature I've seen you. How how to create an animated film has it evolved since your beginnings in this area?
- Bill Plympton: I started making animated films around 1992 and it is interesting that now there seems to be a plethora of independent animation, which I find very stimulating. But it seems to me they all look like the one by which all began. In my opinion, it's a great compliment, that's what I did in 1992 is echoed two decades later. My technique has evolved over time. In the 90s, everything was filmed on a camera Rostrum. Now many developers realize their films digitally, with the flash and other software, a good thing, I think, is healthy. Idiots and Angels reflects this transition. This is the first feature film under my belt, where the drawings were not photographed on the film - they were scanned, processed and then colored on a computer, which greatly eased the technical and really lowered costs. It also gives you more freedom with regard to plans to add, change colors. When you film on a film, where the slightest mistake, you must repeat the entire sequence. Now it's much more manageable.
- Filmmaker : The animated feature films are produced by the studio team, working with a script and actors talking, writers and directors involved. Unlike fiction writers, many independent filmmakers, I guess, do not necessarily know exactly where they go when they launch a project. Where you place yourself between these two ways?
- Bill Plympton: I know exactly where the script goes from the beginning. And I am obliged, as any organization involved in the film. So I must have a clear idea of the film. Usually, it's just a simple sentence. For one, the basic argument was: "An asshole wakes up one morning with wings and do not like because the wings make him do good deeds. Such was the conflict, the tension brought into the structure and plot. The next step is to develop a storyboard, and besides, I find that the storyboards are incredibly important, particularly for animated films. I know a lot of films are using it, but for me the storyboard really matters, because many basic decisions are addressed during this process, like the character design, costume, makeup, background, action, story, pacing, editing, lighting, shooting, the lens type. If I have a good storyboard, so I know it will be a solid film.
- Filmmaker : I note that if your technique may have changed, you are very consistent with the themes on which you work. The focus is often on a character in the grip of dark impulses, misanthropic. And then this evil ...
- Bill Plympton: I hope!
- Filmmaker : born ... hence the humor.
- Bill Plympton: Exactly.
- Filmmaker : A worldview that particular thee.
- Bill Plympton: In fact, my first job was to make political cartoons. I was drawing political cartoons and I loved the social satire. I love making fun of people pontificating, rich, wealthy people, I enjoy very much. And also the military, politicians, those who have power. That gives me plenty of opportunities to make jokes smoking! [Laughter] In Idiots and Angels , both characters are in commanding position the bartender and a doctor, who is such a thirst for power. They are the ones that is, essentially, my morbid humor, twisted. Angel is a guy who starts as asshole, but through affixing wings, he realized the absurdity of his behavior and literally reborn as a being changed. This is not a religious metaphor, just a story about the fragility and resiliency of humans.
- Filmmaker : Despite your taste for lampooning authority figures, which are identified in each company, you also have the gift to capture the man in the world.
- Bill Plympton: Yes, I identify with them. I love films like Frank Capra. Sure, I did a lot of crap in my life. I was an asshole, but I'm trying to improve myself, to be a bit nicer, more generous and that is the subject of the film.
- Filmmaker: Tell me bodies, faces, the air that people in your work. I think the art of George Grosz, in some grotesque oldest in Germany.
- Bill Plympton: My first hit movie titled Your Face, which [was] a guy trying to sing. And as he sings, his face takes bizarre forms. I have long used this kind of surrealism. Even at school, I found that [this way of drawing] made a lot and made me laugh as well. Surrealism is a very rich source of humor, and I think that surrealism is to take the ultimate human body and do something strange with.
- Filmmaker: You gravitated around a particular style of comic books or cartoons?
- Bill Plympton: Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are messy, I love it. In terms of comics, in my opinion, the work of Don Martin [Mad Magazine excerpted from ] [influenced me]. And Charles Addams [creator of the Addams Family ] because it makes the humor from tragedy. It takes lightly the death and suffering and I thought it was hilarious. [Laughs] People thought I was sick.
- Filmmaker: I love all reversals like that in your work. Symbols quite recognizable goodness and simplicity, a small bird singing or a beautiful butterfly, who are being crushed or smashed. Or in the case of Guard Dog , where all these adorable little creatures of the forest turn into satanic creatures.
- Bill Plympton: In fact, I react against all these home movies, to Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks. It makes me throw up, frankly. The distributors, in particular, refuse to take my films, because they believe "it does not target families." I reply: "Actually, I want to make films for adults. I mean, if Quentin Tarantino can do all these outrageous things in his films, why could not I? Just because it's an animated film? Europeans are full of animated films and independent films are also for adults. Persepolis is a good example.
- Filmmaker : In your opinion, the success of these films has something to do with heavyweights such Toy Story 3?
- Bill Plympton: I do not think so. I think this is an audience and a different mentality. The strong influence, in my opinion, is the graphic novel. Because for a long time in America, there were the comics of Superman and Batman. But in Europe, people looked to other graphic novels. That is why the public is prepared to stories that deal with mature themes with comic characters. In America, we do not have that view. We stay behind. So I think that soon the movies that you see in Europe, as The Illusionist [Sylvain Chomet] shall make a box in the States and have a more receptive audience.
- Filmmaker : What do you think of the Internet as a new distribution channel for independent filmmakers like you?
- Bill Plympton: It will be very difficult for cinemas and cable channels to compete with the web. I think the internet is much more democratic - I do not have to deal with all these guards who say, "Oh! is an animated film for adults! nobody wants to see that! Fortunately, I retained my rights to my films and I hope that in future I will have my own library or TV channel where I can sell them. I am very optimistic about the Internet.
- Filmmaker : Idiots and Angels is no dialogue, which gives great importance to the sound design and music. A very choice conscious. The impetus was artistic or practical?
- Bill Plympton: I have directed short films before, without dialogue, as the series Guard Dog and 25 Ways to Quit Smoking , and I always found it very easy to make films that way. Also, I'm not particularly gifted as Dialogue. So I wanted to see if it was possible to produce an animated film without a word of dialogue. What has been done very recently in Chomet's films, but I never did that and I wanted try. So the music takes the place of dialogue. We hired a lot of very good musicians - Tom Waits wrote two songs, and Pink Martini, Nicole Renaud. We are very proud of the soundtrack and we believe most people will not even notice that there is no dialogue, they do not care. And then it will be easier to sell abroad. This movie was my biggest success so far because it has sold more than ten countries, which is sufficient to cover the initial investment.
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Source: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/news/2010/10/bill-plympton-idiots-and-angels/
Article published on 27/10/2010
Translation: © George Festa - 02.2011
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