The Overcoat (animated film)

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Current event marker This article or section contains information about one or more scheduled or expected films. The content may change as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available. Upcoming film
The Overcoat

Scene from the film, with Akaky Akakievich at the centre
Directed by Yuriy Norshteyn
Written by Nikolai Gogol (story)
Cinematography Aleksandr Zhukovskiy
Maksim Granik
Release date(s)  ????
Running time ~65min
Country Russia
Language Russian
IMDb profile

The Overcoat (Russian: Шине́ль, Shinel) is an upcoming animated feature film that has been the main project of acclaimed Russian director and animator Yuriy Norshteyn since 1981. It is based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol with the same name.

At least 25 minutes are believed to have been completed to date. The unfinished film has been shown publicly in several exhibitions of Norshteyn's work around the world and clips of it have been included in a few documentary films about Russian animation and culture.

Contents

[edit] History

Upon finishing his film Tale of Tales in 1979 Norshteyn decided that the next project for his small team (consisting of himself as the animator and director, his wife Franchesca Yarbusova as the artist and his friend Aleksandr Zhukovskiy as the cinematographer) would be an approximately 60-minute-long film based on Gogol's short story The Overcoat. Norshteyn has said that he considers The Overcoat to be as important a work of literature for him personally as one of the chapters of the Bible.[1]

By 1981, when work on the film began, Norshteyn had been working at Soyuzmultfilm (the main Soviet animation studio) for 13 years and had worked on some 40 films and directed or co-directed six. Progress was slow, with many interruptions (Norshteyn estimates that only about three years of work were actually done). Norshteyn says that Viktor Tinyaev (Виктор Тиняев) helped him during this period. In 1986, with only 10 minutes of the film completed, Norshteyn was fired from the Soyuzmultfilm studio in which he had worked. This was despite the fact that his films had gathered many international awards, and Tale of Tales had been voted the best animated film of all time by a large panel of international critics in 1984.

With the help of Rolan Bykov, Norshteyn managed to set up his own animation studio in his home. There, he and his team continued to slowly work on the film. Funding has been sporadic and has come from many different sources, including the Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank) and TNK oil company. A few minutes were shot under the Soros Fund before 1999.[2] Norshteyn has been known for refusing funding from certain sources. He refused to accept money from Mikhail Shvydkoy, the Russian Minister of Culture, saying "one cannot take money from those who would spit at you."[3] He also refused help from Nick Park's company Aardman Animations, accepting from them only a few boxes of lightbulbs.[4]

Production came to a temporary halt on November 17, 1999 with the death of cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy (Александр Жуковский). The loss was crippling for Yuriy Norshteyn - he said of Zhukovskiy that he was the only person who ever saw exactly eye-to-eye with him both as an artist and as a friend. Nevertheless, by 2001 production had resumed with a new cinematographer - Maksim Granik (Максим Граник), one of Zhukovskiy's students. Production soon halted again - this time for three years. Norshteyn spent a year and a half making a 3-minute animation for the introduction to Good Night, Children (Спокойной ночи, малыши), a popular Russian nightly show for young children to watch before they go to bed (his segment was taken off the air in the summer of 2001; the show moved to another channel while the copyright for the sequence stayed with the old one).[5] He also spent nine months working on a 2-minute sequence for the Japanese collaborative film Winter Days (released in 2003).[6] Norshteyn said that this sequence required as much work as a 10-minute film, and that his work on it influenced The Overcoat and vice versa (the sequence contains a scene with Bashō searching for ticks in his cloak which is similar to a scene in The Overcoat).

In a July 4, 2004 interview, Norshteyn said that 25 minutes of The Overcoat had been shot.[7]

To this day, Norshteyn is still working on the film—his ardent perfectionism has earned him the nickname "The Golden Snail".[8] Although he has been offered chances to leave Russia, Norshteyn believes that finishing his film in "circumstances approaching comfort" would be impossible.[2]

[edit] Technique

Norshteyn animating one of the scenes in the film that required a specialised set
Norshteyn animating one of the scenes in the film that required a specialised set

Norshteyn uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25-30cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away).[7] Some scenes required a different approach, as can be seen in the image on the right.

The animation used is cutout animation, a type of stop motion.

Norshteyn refuses to use a computer in his work, and says that even watching computer-animated films makes him ill.[9]

The film is being shot in black-and-white film. Due to the closure of Moscow labs that develop black-and-white film, Norshteyn's team is currently being forced to develop it themselves.[10]

[edit] Plot

Based on Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat. However, Norshteyn has said that "the cinematographer should not be interested in that which is described in detail - he should look to that which is skipped, to that which is implied but is not explicitly written. The break in the text is the most promising, the most alive place for cinema."[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Russian)Третьякова, Мария. "Шинель" как глава Библии, Российская газета, June 22, 2005. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  2. ^ a b (Russian)Мaкcимoв, Андрей. Стенограмма программы "Ночной полет". July 12, 2001. Retrieved on October 13, 2006.
  3. ^ (Russian)Боccарт, Алла. Юрий НОРШТЕЙН: КАМЕРА КРУПНО-КРУПНО ПРИБЛИЗИЛАСЬ К ЧЕЛОВЕКУ, Новая Газета, June 2, 2003. Retrieved on October 13, 2006.
  4. ^ Wright, Jane. Tales by a Russian master, Camden New Journal, February 16, 2006. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  5. ^ (Russian)Железнова, Мария. ПОКЕМОНЫ МОГУТ СПАТЬ СПОКОЙНО, НОВАЯ ГАЗЕТА, August 13, 2001. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
  6. ^ (Russian)Габриадзе, Резо. Юрий Норштейн. Человек, ушедший в гоголевскую "Шинель", Russian Madison, September 18, 2006. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  7. ^ a b (Russian)Боccарт, Алла. В студии Юрий Норштейн, Радио Свобода, June 4, 2004. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  8. ^ Klimenko, Alexei. Golden Snail of Culture, The Moscow News, November 19, 2002. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  9. ^ Finn, Peter. 20 Years of Toil, 20 Minutes of Unique Film, Washington Post, May 31, 2005. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.
  10. ^ (Russian)Каренина, Жанна. Юрий Норштейн. Готов ждать, Смотри НаСтоящее (№ 8), September, 2006. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
  11. ^ (Russian)Скульская, Елена. Юрий НОРШТЕЙН. На Тикусая нищего похож, Дело, June 23, 2003. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Russian


 v • d • e Works of Yuriy Norshteyn

Director/Co-director: 25th October, the First Day (1968) • The Battle of Kerzhenets (1971) • The Fox and the Hare (1973) • The Heron and the Crane (1974) • Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) • Tale of Tales (1979) • Winter Days (2003, segment) • The Overcoat (????)
Animator (selected films): Lefty (1964) • Go There, Don't Know Where (1966) • Times of the Year (1969) • Cheburashka (1972) • Shapoklyak (1974) • 38 Parrots (1976) • Autumn (1982) • The Book of the Dead (2005)
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