The Red Turtle

Dir: Michaël Dudok de Wit

2016

*****

The Red Turtle is an astonishing work of minamalisum, craftsmanship and heaps of symbolisum. I think the story can be interpreted in many different ways but personally I saw it as something of a life guide. The film beguins with an unnamed man, drifting at sea, clambering for life, during a furiocious storm. He awakes shipwrecked and alone on a deserted island in the middle of no where, with only the clothes on his body. After exploring the beautifully hand-painted island, he decides to build a raft, figuring that he holds a much better chance of survival back at sea. Each attempt is scuppered, thanks to the titular Red Turtle, who sinks his raft time after time until he gives up. Infuriated, the man kills the turtle when back on land. Filled with remorse and regret, the man lays next to the body of the turtle and falls asleep, only to discover that the turtle has turned into a women the next morning. The pair live on the island happily ever after and even have a child, the possible meaning to it all really is open to interpretation. Is the secret of happiness confronting and living with one’s remorse? Does the Red Turtle symbolise one’s purpose, a reminder that the pursuit of what is futile is just that, futile. Is it a cautionary tale? Why is the Turtle Red? Is it an environmental warning? So many questions, one could get a little lost by the possibilities. However, as existential as it is (and I generally dislike existentialism), I found it to be remarkably meditative and therapeutic. Its compositions make great use of negative space, making a viewing it on the small screen feel as if you are watching it at the cinema (I can only imagine how wonderful the big screen experience would have been). The film is free from dialogue too, making it about as universal as it gets. Its transcendental wonder will captivate everyone, even the ones who are totally lost by the strange and basic plot. There is a calming balance about the film that is impossible to resist, that I’m sure is integral to the overall aim of the story. Our protagonist is constantly engulfed by the sea, the land and the forest, and goes through all of life’s cycles. He is observed by four curious crabs who, like us, are transfixed by his actions, as well as adding a very slight and welcome injection of humour. It is Robin-ZEN Crusoe, not at all about surviving, but about living. I don’t think there is a direct allegory at play here, if there is then it is more than a little elusive but I really don’t think it matters anyway, it is easy to follow and I think I get the gist of what writer/animator Michaël Dudok de Wit means to convey. Fans of Studio Ghibli certainly won’t be disappointed, although this is co-production (the mother of all you could say) between Ghibli and Wild Bunch. Hayao Miyazaki actually invited Vincent Maraval, head of Wild Bunch, over to visit him at Studio Ghibli head quarters in Japan, specifically to ask him to find the director of 2000’s Father and Daughter, a short film he had fallen in love with. Miyazaki asked de Wit if he could distribute his early short film and if if he could make a feature for them. He agreed to the first but questioned the second, believing that he had misunderstood or that there was a translation error, not quite believing his luck. This is Michaël Dudok de Wit’s debut feature, without Miyazaki he may not have ever had the chance, so The Red Turtle represents a very exciting time in animated movies, and with Miyazaki coming in and out of retirement, Studio Ghibli really does need to expand and branch out if it is to survive and grow. The attention, cultivation and eventual success of The Red Turtle is a great thing for this type of animated venture. Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks still hold the monopoly and studios like Ghibli are fighting the good fight from the other side of the fence. People clearly like both styles of animation, so it is about time they received level pegging.

Father and Daughter

Dir: Michaël Dudok de Wit

2000

****

Hayao Miyazaki, head of Studio Ghibli in Japan, was so moved by Michael Dudok de Wit’s short animated film Father and Daughter, that he sent for the director, asked if he could distribute the film and if he would like to collaborate on a feature length movie. de Wit admitted years later, that he understood Miyazaki’s question regarding distribution but thought that maybe there was a breakdown in translation when it came to working together on a feature length film. He wasn’t joking and de Wit was honoured to work with one of his animation heroes. After many years of development, The RedTurtle was released in 2016, all thanks to 2000’s stunning Father and Daughter. Miyazaki wasn't the film’s only fan however, as Father and Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Short Animation at the 2001 Oscars. The film itself is a watercolour come to life. It’s largely produced in two colours, switching from black and white, brown and white and blue and white. It is occasionally detailed but is, by and large, expressionist in its styling. A Father and young Daughter cycle together to a tree beside a huge body of water. They park their bicycles and embrace before the father, unexpectedly, boards a boat and sails off into the distance, leaving his shocked and distraught Daughter behind. The young girl continues to visit the place where she last saw her father, eagerly anticipating his return, although less and less so over the years. Eventually, the girl is an old women and she visits the spot once more, only to find the water has dried up. She sets out on foot, following the route her father would have taken and eventually finds his boat half buried in the ground. Tired, she decides to lay down in the half submerged boat and falls asleep. When she awakes her father is standing before her, with open arms. If you don’t cry then there is something wrong with you or your eyes. The symbolism is clear and the film is pure poetry. My only gripe is the clichéd French organ music.

The Monk and the Fish

Dir: Michaël Dudok de Wit

1994

****

Michael Dudok de Wit’s Le Moine et le poisson (The Monk and the Fish), is a wonderfully playful short animation, one of the last of its kind to use classic cel animation techniques using simply a brush, Indian Ink and watercolours and no computer involvement whatsoever. Standing next to a water reservoir in a monastery enclave, our titular monk sees a fish and races off to get his net to catch it. However, the fish eludes him and the monk gets more and more agitated as he tries increasingly extreme ways of catching it. He soon gets into the pond himself and also enlists the help of other monks from the monastery. He tries candles and a bow and arrow and chases it night and day to no avail. The more the fish manages to evade him, the more obsessed the monk becomes. He follows the fish out of the pond into a canal, through different landscapes and out of the confines of the monastery. Eventually the chase gets less frantic and the monk and the fish begin to move in harmony. In the wonderfully zen finale, both monk and fish float through a symbolic doorway into a vast open space and drift off into the sky together. It’s hard to decide who comes of best in the end, the monk, the fish or the audience. It’s simple, universal and beautifully unpredictable. It’s also remarkably rewarding, for a story that doesn’t really develop until the last few seconds of the film. It was nominated for the Academy Award for best Animated Short at the 67th Oscars and set Michael Dudok de Wit on his way (he would eventually win for his 2000 short animation Father and Daughter). There is wonderfully playful edge to de Wit’s largely symbolic, serious and zen-like stories, so it is no wonder that years later Studio Ghibli came calling.