Hedgehog in the Fog, Tale of Tales, and The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The films we watched the other day in class were very interesting, each in their own way. The fist could of films we watched were created by Yuri Norstein, the Hedgehog in the Fog, and Tale of Tales. Something I will say about the style is that it was unique and extremely beautiful to watch move, it also gave the films are more whimsical feel to them. The actual story of the Hedgehog in the Fog was easy to understand; yet still kept my interest. Yuri Norstein definitely knows what he is doing in terms of creating his characters. When we watched the documentary, all I could think about was how many different parts each character had to their bodies. The one particular image of an older person that had several parts just on their face really impressed my, also the drawers filled with different eyes that he uses. It just really opened my eyes to the time he takes and the care he uses to create these films.

Now talking about the story, The Hedgehog in the Fog was a story that I was able to follow well. I understood what was happening and yet was still entertained. Even though I was able to tell what was happening, I still found the film to be rather unpredictable. It was filled with touches of humor and the style was more childlike. Which is fitting seeing as how it is based off of a folktale. I think what made this film so entertaining was the fact that it had some surprise elements to it. No one was really expecting it to be humorous at some parts, and when it was, it caught people by surprise and I think they enjoyed that. However, I am mainly speaking from my point of view. The story still was able to get across a theme, or perhaps not a theme, but an underlying idea. The hedgehog talks abut the horse, this horse could stand for something in particular. Since the hedgehog continues to think about it after it gets out of the fog.  

 

Watching Tale of Tales I really had to watch it again in order to make sure I somewhat understood some of the main ideas. From the documentary, he said that it was about eternity. To me that implies life and death and the cycle of it throughout time. Time can be seen at first with the first scene and the last scenes with cars and more modern images (showing that death and life goes throughout time). The film starts out with the image of a child and then at the end of the film, ends with a child. Almost saying that as lives begin, some end, but there will always be that life cycle. Throughout the film the audience can see images of children, or memories from childhood, as many other people mentioned. These memories reflect the carefree life of a child. When the images of the people dancing come up, the men disappear and go to war, then the next set of images are papers being sent out of death certificates of those who had died. This shows the cycle of death in the world. But even with all the death, there is till life, hence the ending with the child.

Jiri Barta’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin, was very interesting to watch. I thought that the style was unusual and the theme was also unique. From what I got the film was about greed and the human want of power. As the people of the town wanted more and more money and power and material items, more and more rats showed up. Until the street were full of them and they were under every house. The rats could be a symbol for the greed of the people, or the people themselves. Once the rats are gone, and the people still remain greedy and power hungry, the piper turns them into rats and has them go off a cliff. As if to say that it was because of their greed that they turned into rats and once they turned, they deserve the same fate as the rats at the beginning did. It was also interesting a the end of the film how the piper disappeared, it leaves the audience with many questions, was he death, or was he a demon or was he never there…? The question remains. Another point in the film I found interesting was the skeleton holding an hourglass. When the piper was walking past it, it looked right at him, and then when the sand emptied into the bottom, he looked away, then the piper went to work playing the flute. It was as if he was signaling for him to start, or perhaps was the reason he started. Many different opinions could be taken on this film and the different parts. Overall I think that the filmmakers got across their main ideas or themes, yet still had room for the audience’s own opinion on the themes.