More and more animation is being released worldwide. Sociologists and culturologists attribute this trend to the fact that the film audience is not only getting younger, but also becoming more infantile, more and more gravitating toward fairy tales, seeking to escape from harsh reality… Nevertheless, these films are very different in quality. It is about this, «different», unexpected animation and speech.
«A princess»
80 and 20. This is exactly the ratio in the «Princess» of animation (80%) and conventional feature films (20%). Which is understandable. Priest August leaves his missionary work abroad and returns home after learning of the death of his sister Christina, known as the porn star Princess. He considers it his duty to take care of Christina’s five-year-old daughter and… avenge her sister’s death. Collision is the flesh of the flesh of reality. Hence the usual image. August uses outrageous means of revenge, faces extreme brutality and lives up to it. Hence the techniques borrowed from anime, Japanese animation, and manga, Japanese adult comics. And they usually act as a kind of therapy — satisfying the viewer’s craving for watching violence.
«Fuck porno!» This is the personal slogan of the 34-year-old director Morgenthaler. With his film, he opposes what he calls «pornification» — the exploitation by the porn industry of a person, both involved in porn and the consumer. Morgenthaler is convinced: “Once upon a time, pornography was a way of freeing people from the oppressive foundations of public hypocrisy. Now it’s just exploitation for money. There is no living sexuality in it.
Zentropa. This is the name of the Danish studio that created the «Princess». This is the same studio run by Lars von Trier that gave birth to Dogville and Dogma. Its products are characterized by exceptional artistic boldness, not without reason it became the second most significant phenomenon in Danish cinema — after the silent films of Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Witch, etc.). The “Princess” is completely bold: it develops the traditions and themes of Dreyer with modern methods. The drama of a man who is deeply religious, but forced to act contrary to faith, is one of these themes. By the way, they say that a working day at Tsentrope begins with a common prayer.
Directed by: ANDERS MORGENTHALER.