Neighbours
1952 · 8m · Canada
Directed by Norman McLaren
Genres: animation, comedy, war
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, mythic
Two neighbors living peacefully side by side descend into escalating, absurd violence over the ownership of a single flower that blooms on the boundary between their properties — an anti-war parable told through pixilation animation of live actors.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
McLaren pixilates two guys into murdering each other over a flower while scratching the soundtrack onto the actual film — Oscar-winning anti-war animation made with a tooth and a camera. Eight minutes, no waste.
McLaren's pixilated parable is a perfect short — anti-war Cold War urgency rendered through frame-by-frame manipulation of live actors, with a hand-scratched soundtrack. The Vimeo upload appears intact.
McLaren animating live actors frame-by-frame as pixilation puppets is the technical bet, but the hand-scratched optical soundtrack etched onto the strip is the chef's kiss. Eight minutes of escalating absurd violence that earned its Oscar.
Reviews
Pablo Picasso called Neighbours 'the best film ever made.'
A philosophical masterpiece that uses pixilation to deliver one of cinema's most powerful anti-war statements.
Festivals
- Academy Awards 1953, Winner
- Festival de Cannes 1952