Underplayed Gems

Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (1995)

Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity poster
Original title
Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity
Directed by
Guy Maddin
Genre
fantasy
Country
Canada
Runtime
5 min
Rating
6.5 of 10 from 23 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A father and son compete for the affections of a woman they rescued from a train crash. The film is inspired by the surreal drawings of Odilon Redon.

whimsicalsurrealdreamlikemelancholicvisually lushdarkly comicslow-burnatmospheric

What happens

Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Guy Maddin and released in 1995. The film stars Jim Keller and Caelum Vatnsdal as Keller and Caelum, a father and son who compete for the affections of Berenice (Brandy Bayes), a woman they have rescued from a train crash. The film was commissioned by the BBC as part of a series in which filmmakers were asked to create short films inspired by other artists. Maddin chose French painter Odilon Redon, focusing in particular on The Eye Like a Strange Balloon, one of the charcoal illustrations Redon did for the first published French translation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The film had its theatrical premiere at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention from the Best Canadian Short Film award jury. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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