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1970-02-06
N/A
6 min
A BAFTA award nominated animation based on a poem by Earle Birney and a painting by El Greco. The theme concerns the responsibility of the innovator for the thing he makes. In the film, a carpenter builds a cross but is reluctant to become involved in the right or wrong of situations that bring men to die on crosses. His interest is in his own craftsmanship. To illustrate this moral, the filmmaker used light-pen drawings, giving colour and emphasis through optical processes.
There are some stunning pencil drawings here as the short poem by Earle Birney is etched out before us. It’s soundtracked to sound like an Hollywood movie about Imperial Rome and it’s the work of the carpenter that’s illustrated as his carefully crafted work is used by others to inflict the maximum amount of suffering on another carpenter as well as presenting us with illustrations of other tools that mankind has developed for the sole purpose of killing ourselves. The narration of the poem is subtle and quite effective and frankly it’s quite a gorgeous short film just to look and listen to.
