Aleksandr Petrov: Bătrînul şi marea

Bazată pe nuvela cu acelaşi nume scrisă de Ernest Hemingway, “Bătrînul şi marea” este una dintre cele mai frumoase animaţii pe care am avut ocazia să le văd pînă acum. O bijuterie tehnică, pictată în ulei pe sticlă, cadru cu cadru; o experienţă uluitoare, profundă şi plină de culoare, în viziunea unui artist genial — Aleksandr Petrov.

Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, Aleksandr Petrov was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took him over two years, from March 1997 through April 1999, to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly acclaimed, receiving the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival