The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

The gentle madness of Paul Driessen is everywhere in his animated shorts — editorial, color palette, sound effects — but mainly it’s that line. For 30 years he’s been honing an affect that at first blush seems positively arthritic. Just watch the pictures move for a few seconds, though, and you’ll see grace, fluidity and tight control in those wavy outlines. His goofy and lackadaisical disregard for the niceties of human anatomy leads his characters to set out for destinations where not every body part arrives at once. His outlines dissolve in a turmoil of gaps. Movement is stoppy and lethargic. But through it all he retains a precision in his timing and a clarity in his largely wordless storytelling that remains impressive in a very surreal milieu populated by medieval dentists, ghost trains and muscle-bound toddlers.

There are over twenty shorts in his resume, some done in Canada and some in Europe. You can pick up six of his National Film Board creations on a VHS called Beyond the Blue Meanies. (Surfers, a word of warning: NFB has a truly astounding number of animation videos for sale, but you wouldn’t know it from their Boutique store portal, where one can hit “Animation” under the “Browse” banner and only come up with 45 results. To see all the goods, go to the root site and navigate through “Find a Film”, “Genres”, and “Animation”, and you’ll be rewarded with a list of more than 1,000 items, more than 600 of which are currently available to order.)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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The Dutch Films of Paul Driessen (1970-2004)

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