January 11, 2007
Crac!
This week I marked off one of my New Year's resolutions by getting rid of a beat up old couch. It was torn in a few places, scratched on one arm by years of active cat claws, and had a couple of stains on it (again, I blame the cats). Still, we'd had a lot of times together, the sofa and I, and a good number of important rumps sat on it at one time or another. Although it's just a couch, we do tend to anthropomorphize objects that have nostalgic value to us, as if they were part of the family. All this made me think of a beautiful piece of Canadian animation from years back called Crac!, which is probably one of the few cartoons that have ever made me cry - and it makes me cry every time I watch it.
And it's about a chair.
Frédéric Back's exceptional short, drawn in beautifully active colored pencil on frosted acetate, tells the story of a family but also of many decades of history and development in Quebec - which in most respects could also stand in for any part of the Western world. Tracing generations in this family, beginning with a young father in 19th Century Quebec, who carves a chair from wood he chopped himself, and on up to the modern age, Crac is beautiful, absorbing and remarkably touching.
[For further reading, there's a great piece about Crac! and Back on FilmJourney.]
Crac! is on The World's Greatest Animation DVD, which has been out for quite some time and is now, alas, out of print - but GreenCine has it for rent, at least. Pull up a favorite old chair, watch it, have a good cry. -- Craig Phillips
Posted by cphillips at January 11, 2007 11:44 AM
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