The CatAstrophe or La chaRade Shawy
© Shawy Animation

The CatAstrophe or La chaRade

English review

Paper is patient, says an old German proverb, meaning that you can write anything down without it having to have any meaning. But paper is also flexible, as many animated films have proven over time. Time and again, artists find ways to tell unique stories with this everyday object and bring them to life using stop-motion technology. There was the classic The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger, whose silhouette fairy tale filled the first long animated film that survives to this day. The cutscenes in the series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969) or the science fiction adventure Fantastic Planet (1973) by René Laloux attained cult status. Of a much more recent date is the short film The CatAstrophe or La chaRade from 2020, which was shown at a number of film festivals and knows how to use the medium of paper in its own way.

The story is told quickly, if one even wants to call it a story. We follow an old woman who pulls a squeaky handcart through the area, covered with a stack of papers, while bombs fall around her. We don’t find out who she is. The city also remains anonymous. We later learn that it is contaminated, a war zone. But that’s it. In around 140 seconds, the dialogue-free short film doesn’t reveal where we are and who is fighting against whom. The CatAstrophe or La chaRade relies more on its atmosphere, which is somewhere between bleak and surreal, as the world ends, the old lady shuffles on unperturbed. And in the midst of the catastrophe, somewhere there is a cat that has gone missing and is being sought using an old-fashioned poster appeal. Hence the title.

Unusual and worth seeing

The result is an unusual work that knows how to work with minimal resources. This refers to both the limited animation and the material, which consists exclusively of recycled paper. The French director Shawy works with an interesting alienation effect when the bombs fall and different levels that are superimposed on each other, underpinned by a concise sound design. The short colored sequence that interrupts the otherwise black and white drawings is a little irritating. Overall, The CatAstrophe or La chaRade is a no-budget short film worth seeing, offers some striking designs and makes you curious to see what else the filmmaker will create in the future.



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The CatAstrophe or La chaRade
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summary
“The CatAstrophe or La chaRade” uses minimal resources to tell the story of an old woman wandering through the city while bombs fall around her. The visuals are interesting, the animated short film is worth seeing because of its bleak and surreal atmosphere as well as it unusual ideas.
fazit
„The CatAstrophe or La chaRade“ erzählt mit minimalen Mitteln, wie eine alte Frau durch die Stadt streift, während um sie herum Bomben niedergehen. Die Umsetzung ist interessant, der animierte Kurzfilm gefällt durch eine bedrückend-surreale Atmosphäre und ungewöhnliche Ideen.
7
von 10