Women, love, relationships in selected animations

Sexy Laundry (2015) by Izabela Plucińska

Between the Valentine’s Day – originally a Western Christian liturgical feast, now an excuse to spend our hard-earned money on red roses and heart-shaped chocolates ($19.7 billion in the US last year) – and the Women’s Day (originally International Working Women’s Day, celebrated since 1909), I decided to write about women, love and relationships. But despite the popularity of the topic, it wasn’t easy to find works I wanted to present, for I am not interested in “…and they lived happily ever after” kind of stories. These sorts of tales, like the recent 3D creation from Disney, Paperman, while charming and faultlessly made, do nothing beyond warming our hearts for a few minutes, as they barely scratch the surface of this complex and fascinating field. The female character I’m interested in seeing on the screen is not a helpless beauty, waiting passively for her beloved to wake her from sleep; she’s bold, and willing to take risks. The love I want to see is complicated and challenging; often unrequited, unfulfilled or unfulfilling; love that is set against obstacles of life and time, and sometimes takes years to evolve and flourish.

The few films I’ve chosen to present are unique for different reasons, and they differ greatly in style, but what they all have in common is that neither of them succumbs to the clichéd depiction of femininity and love.

1. A Feather Tale / Accordion

Stills from  A Feather Tale (1992) and Accordion (2004) by Michèle Cournoyer

The first two films are by Michèle Cournoyer, a Canadian animator who remains faithful to traditional ink on paper drawings. She’s been experimenting with computers, but in the end always goes back to pen and paper: “I draw like that because I do self-portraits. I draw myself. (…) I am trying to change my technique but it is very difficult for me. It’s a drug”, as she is quoted in an article for The Ottawa Citizen. And just as she remains reluctant to incorporate digital technologies in her work, she is equally sceptical of using colour: “I try to put colour into my films, but it’s like I am allergic to colours. I don’t wear colours, but I like it on other people. I’m not ready to use colour in my films.” Both films, A Feather Tale (1992) and