DVD Release: Three Fragments of a Lost Tale

DVD Release Date: Oct. 30, 2012
Price: DVD $19.95
Studio: Microcinema


Three Fragments of a Lost Tale sceneThe 2011 soon-to-be-a-cult fave short film Three Fragments of a Lost Tale is this first stop-motion animated short by American sculptor John Frame.

The 20-minute-long film is based on one of Frame’s art installations—one that was originally exhibited at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California—which consists of 35 articulated, sculpted characters set on a strange, ever-changing detailed backdrop. That the characters are “articulated” refers to their moving fingers, bodies, and jaws.

“Mr. Frame is part of an underground group of stop-motion artists in Southern California who labor in the shadows of the major studios,” writes The New York Times. “Long the center of studio-backed stop-motion animation made by artists like Ray Harryhausen and Art Clokey, the area is now home to scores of solo practitioners more interested in creating highly personal art pieces than commercial works.”

Hmmm…we see Frame’s stop-motion work to be more in the spirit of Jan Svankmajer (Dimensions of Dialogue) and The Brothers Quay (Institute Benjamenta) than it is Harryhausen or Clokey…!

Also included in the package is the short film “Happy Medium,” an eight-minute documentary on the artist’s process, directed by filmmaker Johnny Coffeen.

 

Buy or Rent Three Fragments of a Lost Tale
Amazon graphic
DVD
DVD Empire graphicDVD Movies Unlimited graphic Netflix graphic

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.