Resources
Animators
Yuri Norstein (b. 1941)
Accolades such as 'the greatest of all time' are often suspect as they generally represent the narrow concerns and values of the moment the judgement is made, but when in 1984 a group of animators in Los Angeles voted Yuri Norstein's Tale of Tales (1979) the all-time greatest animation film, they clearly reflected the esteem in which this Russian animator was and continues to be held by the animation community. Tale of Tales is deeply rooted in Russian history, myth and sensibility. It combines memories of childhood and war, and contrasts the romantic past with the threadbare present. The events throughout are observed by a little wolf, a figure common in Russian folklore, though in this case without the usual menacing overtones. Not only does the film have various layers of meaning, it is also complex in how it was made, with Norstein using paper cut-outs and drawings on different levels of glass under the rostrum camera.
Yuri Norstein originally trained as a cabinet-maker and painted as a hobby. He joined Soyuzmultfllm, the USSR's largest film studio, in 1961 to learn animation. Norstein then worked as an Art Director on several films before making his directorial debut, in collaboration with Arkady Tiurin, with 25 October, the First Day (1968), which traced the history of the Russian Revolution through painting.
The Fox and the Hare (1973) was Norstein's first animated film as a director. The first of number of films based on Russian folkloric themes, it featured drawings by his wife, Francesca Yarbusova, who has been his collaborator on most of his films. His next film, The Heron and the Crane (1974) was subject to the disagreements between the animator and the management of the state-run studio that characterised his career there, but was eventually distributed and became popular.
In 1975 Norstein produced The Hedgehog in the Fog, which again met opposition from the studio. An extremely atmospheric film, it has a very simple subject - a hedgehog goes one night to meet his friend, a bear cub, to count the stars. But a fog descends and the hedgehog encounters a range of animals in the mist. The film essentially deals with the relationship between dream and reality.
For the last twenty years, Norstein has been working on a film based on Gogol's The Overcoat under difficult conditions. He left Soyuzmultfllm in 1986 and has been funding the project from the sale of his drawings, and teaching.
Selected films
The Fox and the Hare (1973)
The Heron and the Crane (1974)
The Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)
Tale of Tales (1979)
Available on Masters of Russian Animation Volume 5 (VHS NTSC ) from http://store.russiananimation.com
