Destino was
conceived 60 years ago as a short film collaboration between Salvador Dali and
Walt Disney. If that sounds a little bit like spiking ice cream with LSD, it’s
not far off. And the end result, finally completed by
French Disney animator Dominique Monfrey, from storyboards and paintings by
Dali, is exquisite.
There isn’t much of a plot to speak of – it’s like the penultimate experience of
Dali’s imagery. Imagine his desert paintings, complete with clocks and ants,
morphing from one to the other with the tonal juxtapositions of Un chien
andalou. Everything is liquid and no shape or rule is spared violation.
The original project fell apart during World War II because the money had to be
allocated toward propaganda films. Upon discovering the artwork and recorded
score several years ago, Roy Disney had the material appraised. When met with a
number, he immediately commissioned the project to be completed so that Disney
could own it. This 6 minute short was a delight.
I
suppose Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions is about the death of one
generation giving way to another. It’s about family and death. It’s about the
rise of capitalism over intellectualism. It’s about humanity and its inability
to learn from its mistakes.
At 95 minutes it’s the perfect length. It also directly comments on America’s
reaction to 9/11 in a way that no domestic filmmaker would dare to at the
moment. While it has areas of social observation it’s certainly not preoccupied
with it – it’s very much a human drama, though contextualized by modern society.
Taking place primarily in Quebeq, with sections set in London and Burlington, it
also continues the international depiction of a world with crisscrossing
nationalities and time zones. We haven’t gotten any of that yet in America. Our
idea of multiculturalism is to allow minorities to do the same dumb things that
white pop culture performers do: sitcoms and bad music for teens.
TOMORROW:
Mayor of the Sunset Strip
21 Grams
Copyright 2003 Jamie Stuart