Eye For Film >> Movies >> Symphony No 42 (2014) Film Review
Symphony No 42
Reviewed by: Andrew Robertson
Reka Bucsi's film is a headlong gazetteer of animated chaos. There is the vulpine-suicide inducing prospect of a stick-drawn orrery circling the Eye of Providence, that ocularly-enhanced pyramid that illuminates as it sees all, there is a bout of centaur badminton, there are selkie cuddles, stars swirling in a clearing of painted trees.
These are elements of an incomplete mythography, recalled from heiroglyphic fragments and assembled into an entertainingly mixed bag of nonsense. There are all the sea animals that can be drawn, a forest-eating wolf's bulimia, a dedication to the whales of Sri Lanka. If nothing else there is the terrifying prospect of the floor hippo, and above all of Reka Bucsi's charming animation, apparently some 47 scenes of gargantuan avatars of Cerberus, of fishing polar bears, there is some charming original music by Flóra Lili Matisz, as well as a snippet of Beethoven's 9th.
In its native Hungary it was shown before Frank, and there's definitely something to be said for pairing shorts with features - while short film festivals get good audiences, they work well as amuse-bouche too - Symphony No. 42 is just such a treat. Shortlisted for an Oscar in 2014, it's well worth seeking out.
Reviewed on: 13 Mar 2015