HARVIE KRUMPET - Adam Eliot DVD, Academy Award Winner on DVD - Nov. 9 Options

[rkish]

The 2003 Academy Award Winner for "Best Short Film" (Animated): Harvie Krumpet (by Australian animator Adam Eliot) will be getting it's DVD release on November 9.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...?v=glance&s=dvd

Here is a review posted on Amazon.com from a resident of Melbourne, that I think best represents this film (Thanks Matt Poole!)...

"Harvie Krumpet, a claymation film by Australian filmmaker Adam Elliot, is all about the life of Polish immigrant with Torrett's syndrome who moves to Spotswood, a inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Australia. From Poland, from job to job, from hospital to hospital, to a nudist colony, and finally into dementia in a nursing home, all narrated by Geoffery Rush. It received a lot of praise in Australia, and in the United States, where it received an academy award for Best Animated Short. Though it must have taken Elliot a lot of time and care to make this film (he did all the animation himself), it didn't wow me as much as I thought it would. Though it is a story about an intellectually disabled man's colourful life, this is definitely no Forrest Gump.

For one thing, the animation is very drab. All the people are coloured gray, there are a lot of browns and blacks. It sucks a lot of the fun out of it. Spotswood was a bit dingy back in the day, sure, but nowhere as dingy and as cramped and yuck as this animation makes it. During the film, various "Fakts" are flashed up onto the screen. (Harvie writes down things he learns in life in his "fakts" book). This gets a bit grating through the film, especially when some of the "fakts" aren't that funny, insightful or poignant.

The outlook of director Adam Elliot is a dark one. He obviously dislikes Christianity (it is ridiculed twice in this film, and is the straw that breaks Harvie's sanity), and seems to be a pessimist. Though Harvie's life has perks (he is an avid nudist, an animal activist and vegetarian, and has an adopted daughter he loves), these things are only mentioned in passing. The troubles of his life are what are focused on. Why? What's the point of this film? What does it prove? Is this showing life as it is? Not exactly, the plot is a little too unlikely for that. Is it showing that a guy, no matter how hard done by in life, can make it through. No. There is a "seize the day" message, but it feels really tacked on. Harvie doesn't strive through these bad things, he goes mad and ends up in a nursing home, alone, and with no visits from his daughter. It's nice for a film to address issues like immigrants, dementia and Torret's syndrome, but I felt hardly any sympathy for Harvie. I didn't find him very likeable at all. I found the whole thing pretty depressing, actually.

Still, it was very well animated, and it's always nice to see claymation in the limelight, as well as Australian films. And the narration was lovely, thanks Geoffery Rush!

See it if you're curious at all, and make up your own mind. If you liked this film, see if you can get your hands on some Michael Leuning comics. He's a Melbourne artist with a similar sense of humour (but more hopeful, colourful and optimistic)."

[HBThingy]

I loved Eliot's trilogy, so I'm definitely going to try to see Harvie Krumpet.

Eliot's films are very depressing, but for some reason it always intrigues me. Animation never really shows unfortunate events that much. Also several of these disorders he shows in his films, I never even knew about, which makes his films even more special.

The depressing outlook on life makes you realize how great your life can be.

Plus, it's an academy award winner! Although I'm not to sure about a nudist colony lol, this film is worth checking out ^^