The story of the chair

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Movie
German title The story of the chair
Original title A Chairy Tale
Country of production Canada
Publishing year 1957
length 10 mins
Rod
Director Claude Jutra
Norman McLaren
production National Film Board of Canada
music Chatur Lal
Ravi Shankar
occupation
  • Claude Jutra: Man

The Story of the Chair is a 1957 Canadian animated short film directed by Claude Jutra and Norman McLaren .

action

A man appears reading on the stage on which there is a chair. The man discovers the chair and wants to sit down, but the chair backs away. Several attempts to sit down fail and the man eventually tries to catch the chair. There is a chase and fights with the chair and ends with the resignation of the man. He gives up and sits down on the floor. While he is reading, the chair slowly comes up to him, nudges him and wants his attention. When the man refuses it, the chair pretends to be crying and moves towards the man again. He is hoping for a seat, but the chair eludes him again when he comes too close. The man tries to change the chair in various ways, for example dancing the tango with it and pretending to be a child. At the end the man offers the chair to sit down briefly and the chair takes a seat on the crouching man. Then he allows him to use it as a seat. The film ends with the line “and they sit happily ever after” (“and they sat happily until the end of their days”).

production

The story of the chair was realized by Norman McLaren in pixilation (single frame switching), a form of stop-motion animation that he himself developed and made popular. The film, shot in black and white, was directed by McLaren and Claude Jutra, with Jutra also starring in the film. The animator of the film was Evelyn Lambart . The film was released in 1957. The film title is based on the introductory sentence "Once upon a time ..." ("A long time ago ...") and the final sentence as a play on words from A Fairy Tale (a fairy tale) and chair (chair).

Awards

The Story of the Chair received an Oscar nomination for Best Short Film in 1958 . In the same year he won a special BAFTA award and a Canadian Film Award in the Best Arts and Experimental category.

literature

  • Jim Leach: Claude Jutra: Filmmaker . McGill-Quenn's University Press, Montreal et al. 1999, pp. 39-41.

Web links