I keep records of all my visits to the cinema, and I saw this film at a London cinema in July 1981. It was preceded by a curious cartoon short, and unfortunately I didn't catch the title. Does anyone know what the title of this cartoon was? (The cinema was located opposite Camden Town tube station, and was the only cinema in London showing 'The Phantom Of Liberty' at the time, so anyone who saw it there will have also seen the cartoon.)
shareHmm. Any idea what it was about? Does anything stick in your memory?
shareThanks for your reply, I hope you can help but it will be difficult. What I am sure of is that the cartoon was a foreign one (not Hollywood) and was rather short, perhaps 5 minutes or so. It may have been made in the Czechoslovakia or somewhere like that (BBC2 used to show stuff like that late at night.) I am also sure it was in black and white and, like the main feature, was rather weird and surreal. I can't remember what the storyline was but everything moved very fast and the animation was basic and crude, perhaps 'line' drawings.
Perhaps someone out there will know the answer...
Hmm. Sounds like it could have been something by Walerian Borowczyk? Look for his short films on YouTube, you might find something.
The only other thing I can think of is "Leonardo's Diary" by Jan Svankmajer. Both are great surrealist animators from Eastern Europe who occasionally did the kind of stuff you describe.
everything moved very fast and the animation was basic and crude, perhaps 'line' drawings.
Thanks for your reply. I must confess that I'm not really familiar with any of the titles you have mentioned. Thinking a bit, I have a vague recollection that the cartoon I saw may have been about a piano but this might have been the only scene that I can remember.
As an aside, I recently visited a couple of North London libraries in order to look up back issues of the local newspapers in case the short film was mentioned in the advert but oddly enough, the Camden Plaza cinema (long since closed) did not seem to advertise its films in any of the newspapers I checked.