Meischeid

The scouts

Three minutes of piano and watercolor animation is exactly the kind of thing festivals program to feel sophisticated, and I'd normally skip it—except Auvray's restraint here actually *earns* its quietness instead of just performing it.

A miniature that understands its own formal tradition—the marriage of sparse animation to chamber music recalls the best of Osawa and Kawamoto, and Auvray's decision to let Gonzales' composition carry narrative weight shows real curatorial intelligence.

The precision is in what Auvray *doesn't* animate: the negative space between piano notes and image creates this trembling tension that a lesser artist would've filled with unnecessary movement, and that restraint is the entire film.

Festivals

• Festival des Nations d'Ebensee
• Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart
• Tampere Film Festival