Balance (film)

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Movie
Original title balance
Country of production Germany
original language no
Publishing year 1989
length 7 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Christoph Lauenstein ,
Wolfgang Lauenstein
script Christoph Lauenstein ,
Wolfgang Lauenstein
production Kunsthochschule Kassel ,
Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg
camera Christoph Lauenstein ,
Wolfgang Lauenstein

Balance is a German puppet cartoon by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein from 1989. In 1990 it won the Academy Award ( Oscar ) for best animated short film .

action

The film shows a group of five human-like figures, apparently slim, tall, lean men without hair on their heads, who are on a free-floating square platform. On their backs they have (apparently random) numbers (23, 35, 51, 75, 77) that can be used to distinguish them. When moving, you have to be careful to keep your balance , otherwise the plate will tilt and you will fall.

The figures then extend telescopic rods and use them to fish from the platform. A figure (51) manages to pull a kind of box or chest. From this, like a music box , soft music sounds when you wind it up. The box slips around on the plate very easily, so that the figures with their position have to counterbalance the weight of the chest, otherwise the plate would tip over and everyone would fall off. On the other hand, each of the characters would prefer to have the chest to themselves.

As a result, the chest changes hands several times (51, 77, 51, 23, 35, 51). Finally the figures (51 and 75) fight with each other, causing the box to fall shut, which is dancing to the music. In order not to lose this anymore, he sits down on the box and rams 35, who is the first to fall from the platform. During the next compensatory movement, 51 slips and hangs with both arms on the plate. 75 knocks over 77, but he can still catch himself. 23 rams 77 with the box sliding on in such a way that he falls off the platform. As a result of the compensatory movement of the platform that begins again, it also loses its balance and falls from the platform. After 23 slides with the box into one corner of the platform, he leaves it to run into the other corner as a counterweight. There is still 51 hanging there, trying to get onto the platform. 23 knocks him off the plate with a kick.

You can now see in a long shot that the plate is in equilibrium with 23 on one edge and the box on the opposite edge. In order to maintain balance, the last figure must remain in its position, far from the box; finally the music dies out of the box.

Criticism and background

The film was made at the Kunsthochschule Kassel . It creates an eerie, surreal atmosphere with little effort . Nevertheless, he conveys a universally understandable message.

In 1990 the film was part of the short film program Songlines , initiated by the pop group Alphaville , in which it was underlaid with the song Middle of the Riddle .

The film is recommended by the Federal Agency for Civic Education . In the House of History in Bonn, it runs in an endless loop at the end of the permanent exhibition. You can see the figures, box, plate and the Oscar for this film in the Düsseldorf Film Museum.

The acoustic duo Piano meets Vibes composed a film music for the film Balance , which was premiered live on April 24, 2003 in the Hope cinema in Lübeck as part of a tour.

Awards

Web links