The Old Man and the Sea (老人と海/Rōjin to Umi, 1999) was the first of two
times that the Noburō
Ōfuji Award for innovation in animation has been won by a non-Japanese
director. This Russian-Canadian-Japanese
co-production qualified for the award because it was co-produced by Japanese
companies. One key figure among the
Japanese producers is the animator Tatsuo
Shimamura, president of his own studio Shirogumi,
and professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design. Shimamura had won the Noburō Ōfuji Award one
year previously for the Shirogumi animated shorts Water Spirit (水の精/Mizu no sei, 1998) and Kappa
Hyakuzu (河童百図, 1998).
At the time
of the production of this film, the Russian director Aleksandr Petrov (アレクサンドル・ペトロフ, b.1957), had long been
admired by fellow animators and animation fans around the world for his superior
paint-on-glass
animation films. This involves the
painting of a picture and photographing it, then erasing/altering the picture
to make the next frame. This under the
camera animation technique requires a great level of skill and planning,
because once a scene is started it cannot be corrected. There have been few practitioners of
paint-on-glass, with Petrov being top of the list alongside Vladimir Samsonov (Russia), Caroline Leaf (USA), Georges Schwizgebel (Switzerland) and Witold Giersz (Poland).
Petrov’s Adaptation
Petrov began
his adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s
popular novel The Old Man and the Sea with
a detailed storyboard. According to a short
documentary Petrov made about his techniques as an animator, he had his
father (Nikolai Sergeievich) dress up in the role of the “Old Man”, Santiago,
and re-enact the movements Santiago would make in the boat. His son Dima filmed the re-enactment and this
footage was used as a reference in the studio.
On the whole
it is a faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s tale. As a short film, obviously the story
information has been streamlined, but the key elements are all there. Petrov’s artistic style, which critics often
call romantic realist suits the
subject matter perfectly. It is
realistic in the sense that the character movements and events are depicted in
a realistic manner, but romantic in terms of the painting style. For me, Petrov’s style is like an
Impressionist painting in motion. In the live action adaptations of The Old Man and the Sea, there is a
heavy reliance on voice-over narration to express the spiritual aspects of the
old man’s relationship to his environment.
With animation Petrov is able to
capture this visually in such sequences as the dreamy flashbacks to the African
animals of Santiago’s youth, the dramatic arm wrestling flashback, and the
dream sequence of Santiago as a youth swimming with the marlin.
Awards and Honours
In addition
to the Noburō Ōfuji Award, The Old Man
and the Sea won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for 1999, the Grand Prix
and Audience Award at Annecy, the Jutra Award for Best Animated Film (top film
prize in Québec), and a Special Prize at Hiroshima (2000). The film additionally won top prizes at the
Montréal World Festival, the San Diego International Film Fesitival, Krok,
Zagreb, to name but a selection of honours.
Availability on DVD:
Geneon Universal’s 2002 DVD is only available second hand in Japan. It features Erik Canuel’s Genie Award winning 20-minute documentary Hemingway: A Portrait (Canada, 1999). Both films are dubbed in Japanese.
In the States, the 2005 DVD of The Old Man and the Sea is currently out of print, but some second-hand copies are available.
In France, there is a 2004 release that features French and English dubs. Order from Heeza or amazon:
An Italian release is available with English and Italian dubs and subtitles.
2015 Cathy Munroe Hotes
