Five for Four
1942 · 2m · Canada
Directed by Norman McLaren
Genres: animation, experimental, musical
Tones: theatrical, whimsical
Symbolic figures drawn directly on film dance to Albert Ammons's 'Pinetop's Boogie Woogie' in a wartime savings appeal. Norman McLaren's two-minute short urges Canadians to buy savings stamps.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A propaganda film that's technically a *drawing* dancing to boogie-woogie—McLaren's already weird enough that the wartime savings pitch almost disappears into pure formal play, which is exactly when propaganda gets interesting.
McLaren's direct-on-film technique positions this squarely in the avant-garde tradition while its graphic economy and rhythmic editing demonstrate absolute mastery of the form; this is craft in service of a moment when experimental animation still had to justify itself through public utility.
The decision to animate directly onto the filmstrip rather than use cel animation forces every movement to earn its existence through pure line and rhythm—two minutes of proof that constraint breeds invention, and that a single formal choice can make a wartime ad feel like cinema discovering itself.