LFF Diary, Day 5 - TALES OF THE NIGHT

LFF 2011 Diary, Day 5: Tales of the Night (Rating: ***) A vibrant, yet classically styled, animation, Tales of the Night is as much for adults as it is for children.

Presented much more like a childrens compendium of fairytales than film with an overall storyarch, there is enough enjoyment to be had with each separate vignette to forgive the lack of stringent narrative. In fact, The Tales of the Night hangs pleases best because of some exquisitely designed animation and intriguing short stories. Though sporadic and hardly disciplined, you’d be hard pressed to deny Tales of the Night is a film that is both visually arresting and beautiful in its relaxing simplicity.

The comfort of watching Tales of the Night however would have been greater still had the film’s vivid colours not been saturated by the dark glasses you have to wear for 3-D films. There is also a general difficulty reading subtitles in stereoscopic films, making the whole experience somewhat troublesome. It is something of a success therefore that the film is not a damp squib despite the obvious problems of 3-D - though a 2-D viewing would be much more appreciated.

The story centers around a rundown cinema, where inside a small group gather to create and act out stories each night. Amongst the six tales that are told, a couple in particular stand out for their humour and ingeneuity. ‘Ti-Jean and Beauty Not Known’ is a Caribbean inspired fable, and ‘The Tom-Tom Boy’ an African voodoo inflicted tale powered by rythmical drum accompaniment.

The style of using silhouette figures, backlit by vivid and eyecatching backgrounds, feels of a more traditional fashion of animated storytelling. Though the revolution of digital animation has completely changed the landscape of film animation, there is something genuinely endearing to see a film using more old-fashioned techniques. With hand-crafted animation there is somehow the sense of physicality.

Almost as if you can reach out and manipulate what’s on the screen yourself.

Without sounding too high brow, Tales of the Night feels like a mature or adult animation. Not in the ‘adult’ meaning of content, but rather grown up and sophisticated. Nevertheless, there’s still everything that children would want in an animated film; humour, great music and magical artwork. A real joy. JJ