It can be hard for those of us in the United States, particularly these days, to imagine robust government-funded programs supporting the most creative filmmakers in the country. For our friends to the north, though, the National Film Board does just that, and we have that support to thank for today’s short, “Madame Tutli-Putli.”
“Madame Tutli-Putli” was an Academy Award nominee in 2008, and justifiably so. The stop-motion short focuses on the titular Tutli-Putli as she travels by train with way too much baggage, much of it the emotional kind.
While the storytelling is intriguing, the technical breakthrough in the film was the combination of traditional stop-motion with the insertion of live-action shots of eyes into the characters’ faces. As the eyes are where the, well, eye wanders when watching a film, this detail brings the characters to life in a way not really seen in other stop-motion projects.
While the list of stop-motion psychological thriller / horror(?) films might be short, “Madame Tutli-Putli” is certainly at the top of the list. Here’s hoping Canada’s National Film Board is around to keep fostering innovative projects like this for years to come.
Watch it here: