Underplayed Gems

The Spine (2009)

The Spine poster
Directed by
Chris Landreth
Genre
animation, horror
Country
Canada
Runtime
11 min
Rating
6.0 of 10 from 9 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

An animated short film about a married couple in a dysfunctional relationship. Their emotional and psychological states appear as physical scars and deformations on their bodies.

psycho-realistsurrealisticintimateemotionalscarredunsettlinganimatedstylized

What happens

The Spine is a 2009 animated short film by Chris Landreth about a married dysfunctional couple, created in Landreth's "psycho realist" style, in which characters' mental states are reflected in their physical appearance. Voices for the couple were supplied by Gordon Pinsent and Alberta Watson. Landreth has explained his animation style as "a kind of surrealistic portrayal of real people and what I do with the surrealistic part is to make people's emotional, psychological and spiritual state kind of very evident on their faces and in their body so that they look …scarred in a way that reflects their history." The Spine was produced by the National Film Board of Canada in association with Copperheart Animation and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, with the creative participation of Autodesk Canada and Seneca College's School of Communication Arts. It is Landreth's second film with Copper Heart and the NFB, having won the 2004 Academy Award for Animated Short Film and the 25th Genie Award for Best Animated Short for his previous work, Ryan. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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