Cut-Up – The Films of Grant Munro
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: B Films: B
Can one
man be a great animator, shorts filmmaker and great physical comedian at the
same time? Before Terry Gilliam, Grant
Munro proved it was possible, yet too few have heard of him. An exceptional new DVD set called Cut-Up – The Films of Grant Munro aims
to rectify that and offers a wide selection of his remarkable work from 1945 –
1983.
DVD 1
offers the following thirteen shorts:
1)
Three Blind Mice (1945; 16mm) - This animated
short was co-directed by George Dunning (The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine), Bob Verrall and Munro is a beautiful monochrome
work that is more mature in visuals and “extra” lyrics than expected.
2)
On the Farm (unreleased) – Mixing
color/monochrome, as well as normal speed, reverse footage, and
frame-dropped/stop motion work, is amusing, pushing beyond what could have been
a one-note premise.
3)
Neighbours (1952; 16mm) – Norman McLaren,
best known for his groundbreaking shorts Blinkety-Blank,
Begone Dull Care, Lines Horizontal, Lines Vertical, Fiddle-de-de
and Le Merle, would shoot the
visuals first, then add sound later.
This was far more uncommon in his time and he co-directs that short with
Munro, Jean Paul Ladouceur, Wolf Koenig, and Clarke Daprato. Shot in color, this also introduced the idea
of animating actors in the live-action work, which they termed “pixilation” or
“pixillation” at the time. The term has
since become associated with TV screens and video images, but it is an
avant-garde technique that eventually found its way into the main stream. If you missed it in the early years of the TV
classic Sesame Street, music videos
for Peter Gabriel (Sledgehammer) and
The White Stripes (The Hardest Button to
Button, now on The Work of Director Michel
Gondry DVD reviewed elsewhere on this site) feature the technique. The title characters feud in this one.
4)
Two Bagatelles (1951; 16mm) – Split into On the Lawn and In the Backyard, this color McLaren/Munro collaboration continues
to develop the pixilation process. In a very short piece.
5)
Ballad-O-Maniac (1953) – This live action, sound,
monochrome short stars Munro in a comedy about voting.
6)
Six and Seven-Eighths (1958/59; 35mm and magnetic sound)
– “5 episodes of Original Dixieland Jazz band One-Step” are performed by Munro
himself.
7)
Christmas Cracker (1963) – Munro is a court jester
host of a color, animated piece with kid cut-outs dancing to Jingle Bells, moving toys in conflict
with each other (wind up, battery powered, stop-motion animated), and an animated
piece about a semi-stickman trying to fix up a Christmas tree who goes to outer
space. McLaren and Munro co-directed.
8)
Canon (1964) – More
pixilation/animation mixing from Munro trying to put the human figures
(eventually) on the actual animation board.
9)
The Animal Movie (1966) – An exceptional animated
piece of a young boy traveling through the world of nature and beyond, is one
of the great groundbreakers of what we would see in the classic years of
NET/PBS for children. Munro and Ron
Tunis, with Jacques Jerry on camera, pulled off this exceptional piece. You can see images on the cover of the DVD.
10) Toys (1966) – A live action, color
piece featuring a group of children visiting a well laid-out collection of toys
of the time, which eventually come to life in stop-motion animation, beginning
with a G.I. Joe set. A statement is
being made, possibly? Munro was producer
and director. This was shown a few times
on the series The Great American Dream
Machine.
11) Ashes of Doom (1969) – Munro is the gothic
Vampire in this anti-smoking public service ad.
Chuck Jones suggested the credits.
12) Boo Hoo (1975) – This live action piece
about death and an old man’s reflections on that. It goes form a funeral procession, to a
gospel church, to a graveyard in the day.
13) McLaren on McLaren (1983) – This offers McLaren
candidly and intelligently discussing his work and influences few could
articulate.
The only
extra on DVD 1 is a 90-minutes-long commentary by Munro with John Canemaker and
Dennis Duros that offers rare insight into Canada’s attempts to have a
government/board-sponsored cinema, how that did and did not work, and Munro’s
remarkable career. This is continued on
DVD 2 for the full length of every single short. This means the shorts are repeated on both DVDs
and the length of both commentary tracks equals nearly three and a half hours
of talk alone between the 2 DVDs!
We also
get a full-motion stills gallery with hundreds of great stills and sketches
running though the years, a “Flipbook” by Munro showing the genius of his hand
drawings (each of which are numbered), and the presskit for all this in the
DVD-ROM/Adobe Acrobat format that is very informative and runs 16 pages.
The full
frame images throughout are of exceptional quality, color or black & white. Even when the original sources are dated,
they have survived very well.
The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is as clear as it can be, with the sound showing its age, but
never signs of wear or warping. The
various music compositions are at least always interesting, especially when it
is Jazz applied in an Avant-Garde way. We
have covered several works produced by the Canadian Board before and are
constantly amazed how much good-yet-unseen work has come from them. All in all, this is exceptional presentation
for theatrical shorts of this caliber and age.
The Canadian footage of newer shorts has not looked as good as what we
have here. Fans will love that. Cut-Up
is an historic must-see DVD set of vital film shorts that turned out to have
international significance.
- Nicholas Sheffo
