Monday, July 17, 2006

Borge Ring's Oh My Darling

Thanks to Borge Ring and Hans Perk, here is Ring's 1978 Oscar-nominated short Oh My Darling.

This film predates Anna and Bella, but there are many strong similarities. Once again, Ring concentrates on family dynamics. Instead of siblings, this film is about the relationship between parents and children. And again, Ring uses visual metaphors to find animated ways of expressing things. Birds are one of the key metaphors here, to suggest empy nest syndrome and the creation of new romantic couples. As in Anna and Bella, there are ambivalent relationships, though in this film they don't quite get worked out.

I'm utterly amazed that Ring hasn't been more influential in terms of his design style, his subject matter and his direction. His films are just gems.

2 comments:

Nancy said...

HI Mark,

I think OH MY DARLING is an even better film than ANNA AND BELLA. Borge told me that it was based on his own life--and that the best animation contains something of 'you' in it.
I have seen Borge's third film and can talk about it with you off-site.

Galanthophile said...

Super animation and a warm man to boot. I've written an article myself about Borge on my blog:
http://southaxholmeanimations.blogspot.com/
I should also say what an informative blog, thoroughly readable, fantastic to discover thanks