michael o'pray
Time, Animation and Metaphor in Bady Minck's Im Anfang war der Blick
Im Anfang war der Blick's use of different forms of animation poses many interesting issues around the film. A fundamental question is what purpose does it serve? In a film that deals centrally with time especially the recuperation of the past in Austrian history, animation serves as a means of arresting time, so to speak, of standing outside of it. Animation's ability to subvert the normal laws of space, time and nature allows it to stand against the flow of narrated events and become almost like a point of abstraction – especially when it is being used as a metaphor by which meaning is condensed into an image allowing for multiple readings of the film. For example, Minck's animated rendering of the strange Erzberg mountain allows us to understand it not only as a historical force but also as an element or idea in Bodo Hell's mind. In this way animation in the film is not an aesthetic indulgence but a crucial means of understanding the film's complex meanings. It also reminds us of the intrinsic powers of animation as a metaphorical form.
Heidi Dumreicher l Sergio Fant l Marcy Goldberg l Bodo Hell l Christoph Huber l Lilli Lička l Johannes Moser l Hans Schifferle l Burghart Schmidt l Christian Stadelmann l Mika Taanila l Jean-Philippe Tessé l Barbara Wurm