(Argentina,
95 min.)
Dir. María Ramírez
Ánima Buenos Aires
is a struggle. It evokes comparison to Paris,
je t'aime since it offers a cute little anthology film set in the exotic
city of Buenos Aires, but it deserves more comparison to the dull mess of Paris’ follow-up, New York, I Love You. The four vignettes of Ánima Buenos Aires feel like four random shorts slapped together.
Nothing connects them narratively, aesthetically, or thematically. There is no
reason to show these films together aside from geography.
Ánima Buenos Aires brings together a quartet of Argentina’s finest animators as they collaborate and each offer a unique vignette that aims to capture the style and spirit of the city. The first sequence, “Down on His Luck” by Pablo and Florencia Faivre s tells of a paperman butcher who peddles meat to a collage of Argentines. “Down on His Luck” is a random, if not bizarre, romantic-looking episode that plays like a musical number. Argentines come to the meat market with a beat in their step and saunter off with slabs of pork, hoisting the prime-cut of pig like a tango partner. “Down on His Luck” portrays an old school Buenos Aires being eaten away by consumerism. There’s little room for the friendly butcher, as the city becomes overrun by contemporary corporations and everything turns to shit. The animators highlight the latter point by opening the sequence with an extended gag involving dog feces, which looks ickily real and foreshadows what is to come.
The second and third segments are by all regards
forgettable. If one were making a tribute to Ottawa, these avoidable corners of
Buenos Aires would be, say, Bells
Corners and Vanier. The chapters, “Claustropolis” by Pablo Rodriguez Jauregui
and “Bu-Bu” by Carlos and Lucas Nine, are beautifully composed vignettes that
capture the city in sunny animation and darker shadows, respectively. “Bu-Bu”
is certainly bound to wake some festivalgoers up when it opens with a vintage
live-action gangster reel and transitions into gritty animation, but the two
middle chapters of Ánima Buenos Aires
are dully forgettable. (But they make a great forty minutes nap.)
If one’s body and mind can stay alert, they might enjoy the
silliness of the final chapter of Ánima
Buenos Aires, although “My Broken-Hearted Buenos Aires” by Caloi and Maria
Veronica Ramirez is arguably the film’s most problematic piece. The sequence is
vibrantly colourful as it takes viewers inside a dingy bar in Buenos Aires
where a crotchety bartender wards off the romantic hang-ups that fuel his
customers’ need for drink. “My Broken-Hearted Buenos Aires” sees the barkeep
battle a never-ending series of imaginative bubbles that feature a sexy
ample-bosomed vixen teasing “Yooo-hooo!” at drinkers and viewers alike. The
chapter, while humorous, reeks of sexism, so festivalgoers might leave the film
thinking that Buenos Aires does too.
Little holds these stories together aside from an interlude
featuring graffiti art of a couple doing the tango along the walls of the
city’s beautiful architecture. Ánima
Buenos Aires is a well-intentioned entry into the vein of picturesque
anthology films that have paid tribute to great cities, but the film collapses
on its own pointlessness, as few of these shorts engage with the city itself
and meander into silly follies that provide little entertainment or insight
into the Latin American metropolis. It doesn’t help, either, that most of the
sequences contain little to no dialogue and let viewers coast on the charming
score as they struggle to keep their attention on the picture. Whereas some
anthology films might provide a range of styles and stories to capture the city
as a whole, Ánima Buenos Aires is a
mix of ideas that don’t come together. The animation of each sequence is
vibrant, colourful, and striking, but, unfortunately, this OIAF entry is a sad
reminder that good animation alone does not a good film make.
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Ánima Buenos Aires
screens:
Saturday, Sept. 21 at the ByTowne at 9:15 pm
Please visit www.animationfestival.ca for more
information on OIAF.
