Hold Me Tight
2021 · 7m · Belgium
Directed by Leoluna Robert-Tourneur
Genres: animation, experimental, fantasy
Tones: dark, melancholic, sensual, surreal
In a dark forest, two wild predatory creatures encounter each other in a dangerous seductive dance — an explosive courtship ritual where violent attraction and repulsion spiral toward mutual destruction.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Six-minute predatory courtship dance in color/B&W with no dialogue. Compact, sensual, dangerous — exactly the right length for a mood piece.
Robert-Tourneur's predatory creatures meeting in a dark forest, color shifting to black-and-white — six minutes of erotic-violent courtship in the painterly lineage of Caroline Leaf. Brevity becomes the form.
Dialogue-free animated short blending color and black-and-white for a non-human predatory bridal parade — the chromatic discipline matches the attraction/repulsion oscillation. At 6:30 the formal commitment can stay sustained without exhausting itself.
Reviews
Where the film is truly effective is in how sensorial it feels. It is very rare for a film to successfully recreate the sense of touch as viscerally as this one does.
Between attraction, passion, erotism, and a certain violence, the wilderness and animality of the narrative is cleverly captured visually... Robert-Tourneur displaying a remarkable creativity within the animation medium to give the film its palpable energy.
Festivals
- Annecy International Animation Festival 2021, Jean-Luc Xiberras Prize for Best First Film
- SXSW 2021
- Anima Festival 2021, Prix SACD des auteurs
- Animafest Zagreb 2021
- Grenoble Film Festival 2021, Prix Unifrance
- GLAS Animation Festival 2022