Celebrating its 65th anniversary, the National Film Board Of
Canada (NFB) has centered its celebrations on its main figure, Norman McLaren, with the edtition of his complete works in a pack comprised of 7 DVDs and a booklet. Keep reading...
Introduction
It isn't at all strange that the NFB has chosen its 65th anniversary to be the McLaren Year. NFB's and Norman McLaren's history have been completely related since its begginings. McLaren came to the call of documentarian John Grierson, for whom he had worked previously at the General Post Office Film Unit, to join him at the newly formed NFB. Soon after his incorporation , Grierson asked McLaren the formation of an animation unit, which would be formed in later years by Evelyn Lambart (1942), Jean-Paul Ladouceur (1942), René Jodoin (1943), Grant Munro (1944) and Robert Verrall (1945). Until his death in 1987 McLaren remained at the NFB as its main figure in animation. You may find more details about the McLaren Year's activities here .
McLaren was born in Scotland in 1914. He initiated his art studies at the Glasgow School of FIne Arts in 1932. There he began to get interested in cinema, and through the Glasgow Film Society he discovered the works of Eisenstein and Pudovkin, whose editing techniques are recognizable in his first works, and then Oskar Fischinger. The first two works of McLaren , Seven Till Five (1933) and Camera makes Whoopee (1935) are very formalist. It is wothyof note the second one, in which McLaren makes already use, although briefly, of animation and even pixilation, a technique that he would develop later.
Camera makes Whoopee
I was through the Scottish Amateur FIlm Festival, in which McLaren won the Best FIlm Award for Colour Cocktail (1935), that McLaren got to know Grierson, who was a member of the jury. Grierson invited McLaren to join the GPO Film Unit in which he made educational movies as Book Bargain or News for the Navy. In the GPO he worked and learned with Alberto Cavalcanti and Evelyn Cherry, although the influence of these in his work is almost zero. The most significant movie of McLaren in this period i is Love on the wing (1938), an abstract animation heavily influenced by Emile Cohl.
Love on the wing
In 1936, McLaren travels to Madrid as cameraman of Ivor Montagu during his shooting of Defence of Madrid. The horrors of war that he saw and the warlike prevailing ambience, impelled him in 1939 to emigrate to New York. McLaren in New York survives with difficulty, making sporadic works here and there. Two of his principal films of this period, Dots and Loops (1940) and in which he makes both the animation and the sound drawing directly on the film, are made to be sold to the Guggenheim museum. He makes also in this period Stars and stripes and Boogie Doodle, that were published later by the NFB.
Boogie Doodle
In 1941 he receives a telephone call from John Grierson asking him to meet at his hotel. There Grierson speaks to him about his work at the NFB (at that time National Film Council) and invites him to join. The rest is history...
{mospagebreak title=Contents & Analysis}
Pack Contents
Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition (or L'Integrale in its french version) contains seven dual layer DVDs in individual digipack boxes (made of carton, not plastic), plus a bilingual booklet (english & french). The seven digipacks and th booklet come in a hard carton serigraphed box.
Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition
It's evident the care that the NFB has put in the edition of NMTME. Every digipack has its individual cover, and opens in a triptych with the table of contents in English and French and the DVD, also illustrated individually. The DVDs are in NTSC format and are region free, so they can be played in the majority of medium class players. A PAL edition has not been announced and it is not likely that we'll see one.
DVD menu
Every DVD has a main section, " Films ", that has all the official works of McLaren contained in the DVD, and another one, " Themes ", which is subdvided according to the thematic studies included in every DVD. Every subsection is preceded of a small documentary about 3 minutes length on the highlighted topic, and contains all the films, tests, unfinished works and documentaries related to the topic. Only through the thematic sections we will have access to the extra content, so that is the recommended option to enjoy every DVD. As the films of McLaren fall in several thematic sections, they appear several times through the DVDs.
Hell unlimited
Every segment is preceded of a menu in which there are technical notes on the film (year , length and techniques used), comments by McLaren and sometimes audio fragments from interviews.
The booklet, in english and french, contains an essay of Donald McWilliams, the director of Creative Process (not included in this edition but that it is in Norman McLaren The Collector's Edition) and consultant of NMTME. There is also, a complete folmography and a guide to the DVDs' contents, alphabetically organized and by subject
Begone Dull Care
However, one of the first things you'll notice (and that you can see in this article's screen captures) is the underscan or lesser resolution, with the inevitable window-boxing. According to Masters of Cinema , it must be an attempt of compensating the tendency of certain TV sets to overscan the image. For example, in this reviewer's Sony Bravia, the "optimized" mode eliminates the upper and lower black bars almost completely. But we have as a result the films at a lower resolution than standard.
A phantasy on a nineteenth century painting
Data
Release date | June 5th 2006 |
Contents | 7 DVDs DL Digipack and booklet |
Distribution | Les films du Paradoxe / NFB |
Region | 0 (Region free) |
Format | NTSC |
Video | 4:3 |
Audio | Dolby Digital 5:1 |
Colour | Colour & B/W |
Subtitles | English & French |
Length | 420 min. |
Conclusion
The edition of the complete works of McLaren is exemplary. The care put in the restoration of every film, and that it is possible to see not only in the documentary about the restoration process included in the last DVD but simply comparing the images included in the other documentaries with the films in the DVDs is impressive. It has a small defect, though, and it is the films' underscan (not present in the documentaries) that will affect you dependind on the video equipment you posess. Nonetheless, this is without doubt the definitive edition we were waiting for and for an affordable price. An A for the NFB.
{mospagebreak title=Appendix A: Content details}
Appendix A : Content details
DVD 1 |
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Beginnings 7 till 5 (m) Camera makes whoopee (m) Book bargain Mony a pickle (c) News for the Navy The obedient flame Love on the wing McLaren and space Painting with light |
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DVD 2 |
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The art of motion Begone dull care Blinkity blank Lines horizontal Lines vertical Mosaic The making of Mosaic (t/m) Boogie doodle Short and suite Serenal Doors (u/m) Hen hop Fiddle-de-dee Dots Hoppity Hop Loops Mail early Mail early for Christmas Chaplin test (t/m) NBC Valentine greeting New York lightboard (m) New York lightboard record (m) Stars and stripes Birdlings (t/m) Evelyn Lambart Surrealism Maurice Blackburn |
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DVD 3 |
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Dance Spook sport (c) July 4th 1941 (a/m) On the farm (t/m) Neighbours Two bagatelles A chairy tale Bounce film (t/m) Six and seven-eights (u) Norman McLaren's opening speech Canon Canon test (t/m) Christmas cracker (c) Polychrome fantasy (m) Pas de deux Pas de deux test (t/m) Ballet adagio Narcissus Narcissus test (t/m) Vincent Warren Grant Munro |
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DVD 4 |
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War and peace Has anybody seen Canada? A history of canadian movies 1939-1953 Outtakes (t/a) Hell unlimited (c/m) Snakes (u/m) The wook (c) Keep your mouth shut V for victory 5 for 4 Dollar dance Neighbours A chairy tale A chairy tale alternate ending (t) A chairy tale tests and aouttakes (t/m) Window on Canada no 29 exceprt 3 (a) |
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DVD 5 |
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The animator as musician Synchromy Test a for Synchromy (t) Test b for Synchromy (t) WOrkshop experiments in animated studio (t) Loops Neighbours Blinkity blank Le merle rehearses (u) Scherzo Canon Pen point percussion (a) Animated sound test (t) Korean Alphabet (c) Synthetic music experiments (t) Animated motion |
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DVD 6 |
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Paper cut-outs Le merle Le merle tests and outtakes (t/m) Dans un petit bois (u) Rythmetic 1-2-3 (u/m) Alouette Le perdriole (u/m) Spheres (c) René Jodoin About McLaren |
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DVD 7 |
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About McLaren Cinéma de notre temps (a) McLaren par Justra - Cinéma canadien, SRC 1961 (a) Pinscreen (a) Pinscreen tests (t/m) The digital restoration process |
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(t) test (u) unfinished (c) collaboration (m) mute (a) documentary |
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{mospagebreak title=Appendix B: How to get it}
Appendix B: How to get it
Neighbours
The edition reviewed here is the one published in France in June the 5th by Le films du Paradoxe, owing to the Annecy Animation Festival, for about 97 €. It is available at the following online shops:
- Chalet Films (recommended)
- Heeza
- FNAC
- Alapage
The USA/Canada edition is due out this fall, probably towards the end of October and there should be no significant differences with the "european" edition. It has an estimated cost of about 100 $.