norman mclaren

eturning to the recent but unintentional focus on animation, I've discovered a wonderful site for the National Film Board of Canada, which contains five films by Norman McLaren (four are listed under his name, with the fifth under Claude Jutra), as well as the stunning 'Two Sisters' by Caroline Leaf.

Norman McLaren was the first animator I discovered after Disney and cartoons. It was sometime in the mid-1970s, and I'd wandered into the Fruitmarket Gallery, as I occasionally did in those days, just to see what was going on.

A temporary room had been set up in the middle of the gallery, with walls draped in black cloth. Not very confident and feeling like an intruder, I tentatively peeked round the corners designed to exclude stray daylight, and found a jumpy, crackly, nonsensical world. It was the precise opposite to the smoothness of my much-loved Jungle Book. Abstract shapes, drawn directly onto film, leapt shakily around; solid objects moved of their own accord and with personality, while people seemed to float through the air while their legs blurred below them.

I watched all of the films again and again, and returned to the gallery several times before the exhbition ended.

Tags: norman mclaren | animation | national film board | canada