The Midnight Parasites (1972) is a good example of the kind of animation I’m often searching for: strange and grotesque yet with its own internal logic. Yoji Kuri populates a Surrealist landscape with infernal creatures borrowed from Hieronymus Bosch, a succession of humanoids and predatory monsters whose struggles for survival are overlaid with an uncredited electronic score. I can imagine Roland Topor enjoying this one, it belongs in the same solar system as Fantastic Planet. Watch it here.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Surrealism archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Bosch details
Nice. I just finished perusing Jim Woodring’s 400 page wordless One Beautiful Spring Day which is similarly Bosch influenced
One thing that comics and animation have in common (aside from the obvious basis in drawing) is the ability to get as weird as this. That book looks like a good one.
https://www.nbcuni.co.jp/anime/NAA/contents/hp0007/index00070000.html
The director’s commentary on this page says that none other than Isao Tomita composed the score, wow! It looks like he was doing a lot of work for TV and animation around this time.
Ah, thanks, that makes sense. He composed a few scores for Osamu Tezuka around the same time.
I’ll give it a watch. BTW, do you know the short “L’escamoteur”, adapted in 1991 by Eve Ramboz literally made from fragments, mainly from the eponymous painting by Hieronymus Bosch? The music is from Jean-Philippe Goude. It’s beautiful and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7tuZ0Zn-NY&ab_channel=PierreSouverain
Thanks, I’d not seen that one before. The music was a surprise since I have the Weidorje album which Goude played on in 1978. I ought to explore his other music.