I struggled with watching Sapegin's animation. Chiefly, I find it hard to connect with stop motion animation; it unsettles me. Yet in a way, perhaps the disquiet of the tale is well-reflected in the medium, and it takes on an entirely new lifeforce in the climax, after the eponymous Madama loses her child and literally tears herself apart in grief.
While some scenes made me cringe and avert my eyes, such as the awkward and perhaps satirical love scene between two sexless dolls, the final minute set the animation apart in my mind, and presented an image I still think about in quieter moments: the calmness with which the Madama sheds her dress and skin, unscrews each joint and sets it aside, so deeply methodical, as if it's the only logical step in her tale.
When nearly nothing remains of her, she lays back and never moves again. Something about that haunts me more deeply than if she'd just flung herself from the studio table and shattered into pieces. It makes me think of a broken woman, too trapped by society to end herself quickly, so she strips herself down through the years until she's taken by either the burden of time or the consequences of her fall. Haunting.
No comments:
Post a Comment