"I want to fly... Waiting for sunrise"

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Gardener of the Artificial Landscape

I just watched 展覧会の絵 (Tenrankai no E) or Pictures at an Exhibition, 1966, an animated short film by Osamu Tezuka. He's most notably known for Astro Boy... but I realized that he's actually extremely unconventional and, just pushing boundaries with his stuff (see here for description of some of his short films)

Anyway, I came across this particular film while reading about Pictures at an Exhibition, a famous musical suite written by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874 in remembrance of his friend Viktor Hartmann.

The film has this segment called "Gardener of the Artificial Landscape". A grasshopper was flying through a city at night with his belongings on his back, thirsty and tired, and wanting to find some water to refresh himself. But, he could not find a single drop. All the flowers were artificial, even the dew were glass beads. Not a singe organic thing was in sight or reach. Daybreak came, and the 'gardener' came out together with the pedestrians... and the gardener pruned the artificial plants and perfumed them and admired them; the other people also admired them. He then put a flower in his shirt pocket then admired his own reflection in the glass of the artificial pool. Then he saw the grasshopper lying dying on the ground, picked it up, looked at it, and flicked it away with disdain. It ended up outside that perfect artificial city, in the dirt, underneath a dirty-looking weed-like plant. As it lay there dying, a drop of water slid down the plant's leaf and landed on his head, and he closed his eyes.

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