There Will Come Soft Rains – Russian Sci-Fi Animation
JA
May 05
Rhizome have put together a rather amazing collection of Russian short animation, all of which were created during the 1980s, towards the end of the Cold War. Several of these are based on stories by American science-fiction authors, including Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, and there’s something at once beautiful yet creepy and poignant about the cartooning.
This is especially so with this video of ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, based on a story by Bradbury and directed by Nazim Tulyakhodzayev of Uzbekfilm Studio. To the best of my knowledge, the animation revolves around a robot who continues to serve a family – performing daily tasks like making breakfast, cleaning and waking the children – despite the fact that all humans were long ago killed in a nuclear war. (Via boingboing)
‘The Meeting’, directed by Mihail Titov of Kievnauchfilm.
Also on theme might be this post from A Journey Round My Skull on a Russian primary school textbook from 1992, called The Miracle of Life. Granted it’s meant to be teaching kids about the human body, but I couldn’t help thinking that some of these illustrations had something decidedly otherworldly about them.
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre
Comments
08 May 10 at 17:22
I like the second one, it’s so playful and fluid. I’m finding I like a lot of that Cold War future dystopia stuff. The cartooning is creepy but I get a sense of that from the fiction too – I wonder if it’s because it reads/views as prophecy?
And just by the way, do you know any good Russian movies that fall into the future dystopia category?
...09 May 10 at 13:43
It’s strange to think about the feel this kind of animation has acquired now, especially in contrast to the whole 3D craze that seems to be going round. I love the look of both of these even though they’re quite different. Unfortunately I can’t say I know of any good Russian dystopian movies off the top of my head. My expertise stops short at Youtube.
...