Gould meets McLaren (1993)
by Norman McLaren
The music is Bach's Fugue 14 in f# minor (from the Well-tempered Clavier Book 1 BWV 859) played by Glenn Gould. Gould had a habit of humming along as he played (much to the annoyance of his producers and sound recordists): you can hear him in this recording.
It's from the excellent 1993 film Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould. This is one of the 32 films featured.
Hedghog in the Fog (1975)
This is Yurij Norstein's seminal animation which is either loaded with Soviet analogies and metaphors, or just a really beautiful, tender folk story - you choose.
I saw both this and the McLaren animation during insomniac nights after my A-levels, back in the days when you could still see really interesting stuff on TV if you were ready to forsake sleep and wade through a lot of bad smut and/or 'pages from Teletext'.
The Cat Concerto (1946)
Tom & Jerry at their finest. Please note that the sequences in which Tom is playing piano are musically accurate and correct -- I doff my cap to the animators for this.
I put it in as a counterweight for the McLaren animation, plus who doesn't love Tom & Jerry?
I first saw this on that Rolf Harris animation show for kids, when I was about 10, but which profiled some of the most skilful and well-crafted animations around the world. Lots of the stuff I saw on that show really stuck with me -- another notable T&J episode sees them figure-skating on the frozen floor of the kitchen.
Fishing with John (1991)
There's no YouTube for this one because the Criterion Collection people have been jumping on people posting it up there illegally.
This series is a marvel of scuzzy VHS tape. Each episode sees anarcho-jazzist John Lurie setting off on a fishing expedition with a famous person in tow. In this episode, Lurie takes Jim Jarmusch off the coast of NY state to catch some sharks.
Later episodes feature Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe and (a special double episode) Dennis Hopper. They are all brilliant and the (Lurie composed) soundtracks especially so.
I love Fishing with John for its combination of satire, humour, dreaminess and experimental/surreal techniques. Though I don't really care for angling.
Fishing with John on IMDB
And that, children, is what is going on inside my brain.
