Allegro non troppo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Allegro non troppo |
| Original title | Allegro non troppo |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1976 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bruno Bozzetto |
| script | Bruno Bozzetto Guido Manuli Maurizio Nichetti |
| production | Bruno Bozzetto |
| music |
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy Slavic Dance No. 7 by Antonín Dvořák Boléro by Maurice Ravel Valse triste by Jean Sibelius Concerto in C major for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets , strings and basso continuo by Antonio Vivaldi The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky |
| occupation | |
Allegro non troppo (it. "Not too cheerful", also used as a tempo designation in classical music ) is an Italian feature film by Bruno Bozzetto from 1976. It consists of a framework story in a concert hall and cartoons. In form and content, it relates directly to Walt Disney's Fantasia and also parodies the model. Above all, however, it is strongly influenced by the socio-political issues of the 1970s and represents a civilization-critical response to the optimistic tenor in Disney's work.
construction
As in Fantasia , several pieces of classical music are implemented in successive short films ranging from comedic to deeply sad. These clay works are:
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy
- Slavic Dance No. 7 by Antonín Dvořák
- Boléro by Maurice Ravel
- Valse triste by Jean Sibelius
- Concerto in C major for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, strings and basso continuo by Antonio Vivaldi
- The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky
The cartoon is colored. In the introduction, between the episodes and at the end there are real films in black and white; on the one hand as a reminiscence of the narrative introductions in Fantasia , on the other hand they serve as a transition to the animation and parody the insane, capitalist conditions in which the film was created. Among other things, an exploitative director, a draftsman kept in chains ( Maurizio Nichetti ), a young cleaning lady, a crazy conductor and an orchestra of old women reminiscent of Fellini films appear, who argue about the following pieces. In turn, animated elements are woven into these parts. Signor Rossi , Bozzetto's most famous creation, appears, but suffers a typical film fate: he burns when his celluloid catches fire. In the end, the colorful animated main character of the last film, the snake of paradise, escapes into the still black and white real film and causes the orchestra to drift apart in a panic.
In contrast to Fantasia , a story is told for every piece of music. Bozzetto commented: “Ho visto dodici volte Fantasia. Disney ha dato una illustrazione essenzialmente grafica della musica, mentre io ho cercato di raccontare delle storie. (...) È molto più difficile realizzare una storia seguendo la musica che non abbandonarsi alla fantasia grafica "(" I've seen Fantasia twelve times. Disney created an essentially figurative representation of the music while I was trying to tell a story. (.. .) It is much more difficult to realize a narrative that follows music than to indulge in the visual imagination. ")
Description of the episode
- Allegro non troppo makes it clear right from the start by alluding to Disney's film adaptation of Ludwig van Beethoven's 6th symphony (Pastorale) that the film as a whole refers to Fantasia : The episode to Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune shows an Arcadian landscape as in the American model. But at the same time it is a direct parody of Vaslav Nijinsky's ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune (based on the poem of the same name by Stéphane Mallarmé ); only it shows not a young but an old faun, who was completely unsuccessful in the hunt for the nymphs of the forest; this disappears, becoming very small, finally in a wide hilly landscape that turns out to be the body of a woman.
- Antonín Dvořák's Slavic Dance No. 7 accompanies a group of cavemen, one of whom emerges and builds increasingly modern dwellings, which the others imitate him immediately. The pioneer gradually notices that he is being followed blindly and tests how far he can go. He forms a kind of military force out of the people and leads them to a cliff, from which he supposedly jumps down, but holds on to a tree branch protruding from the wall. When he notices that his entourage is not falling like the lemmings, he climbs up and looks over the edge of the cliff, where the people have remained. They stopped shortly before the abyss, and in the final flourish of the piece they turned around, let their trousers down and showed their guide their bare buttocks.
- A parallel evolution to the earthly is developed for Maurice Ravel's Boléro , again as a reminiscence of Fantasia , where Stravinski's Le sacre du printemps served as accompanying music for a geological history up to the fall of the dinosaurs. A spaceship lands on a planet, and pollution begins: a half-empty Coca-Cola bottle is carelessly thrown from the flying ship. The sap begins to ferment, falls to the planet floor, and from this fertilization new and more highly developed beings develop continuously, which are very reminiscent of earthly forms of life. The artistic effect of the animal shapes, which pulsate with the beat of the music, emerge from the primordial slime and partly dissolve again, is formally remarkable. It is reminiscent of lava lamps and liquid light shows ( oil projection ), where everything is pervaded by billowing, iridescent clouds of fog. The creatures begin to march towards an unknown goal, arguing over and over again, but unswervingly. Among them is an ape-like creature that gradually turns its companions into furs, weapons and other things that are useful to it. The train passes pyramids and battlefields and finally ends in a city where the creatures are drowned in the middle of high-rise buildings. At the end the person appears who inspects his work of destruction; his face crumbles and the monkey that has destroyed all evolutionary colleagues looks out.
- Jean Sibelius' Valse Triste underscores by far the most moving episode of the film. A cat walks through the ruins of a large house destroyed by fire or perhaps war, hallucinating about the past; the rooms suddenly become whole again, are filled with furniture and people reappear who had a happy life there with the cat. But the nostalgic apparitions disappear as quickly as they came. This happens three times, and the cat always finds itself in the post-apocalypse and in a deeper misery. Finally she dissolves like her ghosts, and a wrecking ball shatters the house.
- The following piece, to Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in Do Maggiore , forms a strong humorous contrast to the deeply sad story before. It shows a very neat bee, somewhat reminiscent of Mickey Mouse, who wants to prepare her meal on a flower. But she is always disturbed by a pair of human lovers lying on the grass while laying the dishes. This rolls back and forth and finally over the bee, whose fate remains unclear for a moment. A short break for art follows, then the final cry of pain from the man who has just been stabbed.
- Igor Stravinski's Firebird and a reinterpretation of the biblical Fall will conclude . The episode begins as a stop-motion film with the symbol of the omniscient pyramid and a lump of clay, from which Adam and Eve are formed after several unsuccessful attempts. Now the actual animation begins, and the snake appears and offers the human couple the apple. But, unlike in the Book of Genesis, this rejects the forbidden fruit, whereupon the snake eats it itself. The expulsion from paradise now hits the serpent who is thrown into a true modern sodom and gomorrah full of drugs and pornography and put into a modern suit. But the snake can return, meets Adam and Eve, recounts its experiences in horror, tears off the suit and, before crawling away, chokes out the apple that falls at people's feet.
Reviews
“A successful animated film that relates music and drawing in a variety of ways, stylistically diverse and with great precision. In addition to its aesthetic pleasure, it also provides food for thought on the subject of 'Civilization and its price'. The episode of the Ravel piece 'Bolero', where human civilization develops from the last drop of a bottle of cola, is outstanding. "
Web links
- Bruno Bozzetto's homepage
- Allegro non troppo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The architecture critic Hanno Rauterberg points out that the opening scene, in which a field of steles can be seen around the house, is very similar to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin . Here as there it is about grief, loss, being lost. Article in: Die Zeit No. 16 of April 14, 2005
- ^ Allegro non troppo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 22, 2017 .