(Canada, 8 min.)
Written and directed by Claire Blanchet
Starring: Heather O’Neill, Marc-André Grondin
Programme: Short Cuts Canada Programme 5 (World Premiere)
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Photo taken from the production, courtesy of the NFB. |
Montreal is a magical city. Where else can someone step out
of a sex shop and then saunter into the church next door and pray for
forgiveness? Walk too far down the wild side of Ste. Catherine’s Street,
though, and you’ll stumble into a completely different world. Filmmaker Claire
Blanchet imagines an enchantingly gritty
rendering of the city in The End of
Pinky and wraps it in a smoky, magnetic glow. Inviting the audience on a
walking tour of the city’s red light district, the Pinky is a grim, yet surprisingly enchanting revenge tale. The End of Pink is a noir told with the cadence of a bedtime
tale.
The man seeking the end of Pinky is a charming punk named
Johnny (voiced by Marc-André Grondin), who survives a rough upbringing only to doll out violence when he
becomes a man. His mission is to settle the hash of his partner, and best
friend, Pinky, who spilled the beans on Johnny’s slick operation when he was
popped by the fuzz. Caught between the friends is a fragile dame named Mia,
another of the wounded ghosts floating around Blanchet’s dreamlike city that
feels like somewhere in between heaven and hell. Purgatory, perhaps, if the Johnny's turf doesn’t fall under Satan’s jurisdiction.
The End of Pinky unfolds
playfully, yet matter-of-factly in a mix of hand-drawn pencil and pastel
animation, rendered in stereoscopic 3D, that is both dark and fanciful. The
visuals get an extra sense of whimsy thanks to the excellent score by Geneviève
Levasseur, which, like the drawings, is equal parts darkness and child-friendly
cheer. This lullaby for little criminals is told in voiceover by Montréal
author Heather O’Neill, who penned the short story on which Pinky is based. O’Neill tells the tale
in droll nonchalant narration. Murder, brothels, and prison are all just stuff of the
city’s streets and The End of Pinky
finds just the right dime-store metaphors, the words of pulp fiction, to make
all this sordid behaviour sound beautifully commonplace. O'Neill's voice, as it does
in print, has a unique way of subverting things that are common and familiar.
The End of Pinky,
with its playful syntax and imaginatively sedated worldview, is a good-humoured
fable with a romantic eye for society’s outcasts. Blanchet’s classically styled
animation seems like an appropriately nostalgic choice for this tale. The End of Pinky envisions Montreal
through the warm haze of drunk goggles. It looks far better than if one looked
at the city through a pair of rose-coloured glasses.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The End of Pinky screens in Short Cuts Canada Programme 5:
-Wednesday, Sept. 11,
9:15 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
-Thursday, Sept. 12, 2:30
pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
Some of the shorts will also be playing online 24 hours after their public screening, so please check http://www.youtube.com/tiff and see if Gloria Victoria is one them!
Some of the shorts will also be playing online 24 hours after their public screening, so please check http://www.youtube.com/tiff and see if Gloria Victoria is one them!
Also reviewed from
Short Cuts Canada Programme 5: Impromptu.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more info on this year's festival.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more info on this year's festival.