Babeldom
(UK, 81 min.)
Written and directed by Paul Bush
Where does one start with Babeldom? Let us begin with the walkouts. Saturday night’s Gala
screening at the Ottawa International Animation Festival saw a mass exodus of
patrons fleeing for the doors. I have never seen so many cinephiles exit the
theatre. Smart folks they were. For those of us who stayed and survived,
however, we certainly played witness to the greatest turkey on the festival
circuit this year. (Breathe a sigh of relief, Passion.)
The film continues with an endless stream of circular
voiceovers matched to meandering visuals of sewers, streets, escalators, and
animated algorithms. The film contains little animation for a feature film
screening at an animation festival, and the non-live action scenes are easily
the least attractive pieces of the whole. The animated aspects of Babeldom look as if they were made on a
computer program from the 1980s, with the clunky, jerky figures accentuating
the ham-fisted philosophy of the narration. The only animated sequence that has
any life to it is a strange montage of cartoon strippers who twirl around and
spin their breasts. Babeldom is the Piranha 3DD of essay films.
With its rambling musings and mish-mash of visuals, Babeldom says a lot without actually
saying anything. This is arguably the most artless, self-indulgent, and plodding
piece of pseudo-intellectual bullshit I have ever seen. This fraudulent film
might appeal to self-consciously highbrow cinephiles who love to chat semiotics
over scotch on a Saturday night, but Babeldom
is simply so empty and tortuous that one cannot be bothered to debate it.
The latter observation is the film’s greatest disappointment,
for while essay films can often be among the most difficult film experiences,
they can also be among the most rewarding. Films like Sans Soleil or, more recently, The
Prophet excite the mind and the senses with their melding of form and
thought. It’s what comes after such a film that should yield its greatest
reward. The journey is not worth the struggle, however, since Babeldom only conjures a feeling of time
misspent.
Rating: ★ (out of ★★★★★)