Fantasmagorie (1908)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  6 / 10

  Fantasmagorie blends an early form of stop motion animation with surrealism. Often described as "the first motion picture animation" that lasts a staggering two minutes. Silent live action pictures were slowly becoming popular in the early 1900's (particularly in France thanks to Méliès), Émile Cohl then decided to create a diversion by testing the limitations of film. Much like a flip book, he photographed a sequential array of cartoons and edited them to create a fully realised motion picture. A cartoon that comes to life. Now I don't know about you, but in 1908 I'm sure this was a monumental achievement in film experimentation. Does it mean the film is good? Well, it's just a random series of drawings that hold no narrative structure. It's simply a case of proving that it was an achievable goal. The illustrations depict a man in precariously surreal scenarios, whether he be balancing on an elephant's trunk to plucking the feathers off a stranger's hat. Each five second scene seamlessly moulds into the next, creating one long animation as opposed to small cartoons with abrupt transitions. Honestly, not much else I can say. I'm sure if one was high, this would be an unforgettably abnormal experience. However, it remains a functional animation that surprisingly has stood the test of time. Its lack of narrative imagination results in an unmemorable animation, but Cohl proved that you can bring life to pen and paper (or in this case chalk and board).

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