A Chairy Tale
Encyclopedia
A Chairy Tale is a 1957 animated short film co-directed by Norman McLaren
and Claude Jutra
, and starring Jutra and a most uncooperative chair.
Using pixilation
, the film humorously portrays Jutra's attempts to sit on the chair - and it on him - set to the music of Ravi Shankar
and Chatur Lal
.
The film begins with a seemingly normal chair onscreen. Jutra enters, carrying a book, and attempts to sit in the chair so he can read his book. The chair unexpectedly moves out from under him. The man's persistent attempts to sit in the chair become increasingly frenetic and increasingly violent ... but only to himself, not to the chair. Finally, it dawns on the man that perhaps the chair will let him sit on it for a while if he will first allow the chair to sit on him for a few seconds. This gambit succeeds, and all ends happily.
As with McLaren's equally acclaimed short Neighbours
, the message of the film is that cooperation is a better means to resolve disputes than force.
A Chairy Tale is a National Film Board of Canada
production and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Live Action) in 1957. The film received a special BAFTA Award in 1958.
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
and Claude Jutra
Claude Jutra
Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director and writer. The Prix Jutra are named in his honor because of his importance in Quebec cinema history. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec....
, and starring Jutra and a most uncooperative chair.
Using pixilation
Pixilation
Pixilation is a stop motion technique where live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor becomes a kind of living stop motion puppet...
, the film humorously portrays Jutra's attempts to sit on the chair - and it on him - set to the music of Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
and Chatur Lal
Chatur Lal
Chatur Lal , was an Indian tabla player. Lal toured with Ravi Shankar, Aashish Khan, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan in the 1950s and early 60s and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. Chatur Lal was born 1925 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Lal died October 1965...
.
The film begins with a seemingly normal chair onscreen. Jutra enters, carrying a book, and attempts to sit in the chair so he can read his book. The chair unexpectedly moves out from under him. The man's persistent attempts to sit in the chair become increasingly frenetic and increasingly violent ... but only to himself, not to the chair. Finally, it dawns on the man that perhaps the chair will let him sit on it for a while if he will first allow the chair to sit on him for a few seconds. This gambit succeeds, and all ends happily.
As with McLaren's equally acclaimed short Neighbours
Neighbours (film)
Neighbours is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses the technique known as pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop-motion objects...
, the message of the film is that cooperation is a better means to resolve disputes than force.
A Chairy Tale is a National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
production and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Live Action) in 1957. The film received a special BAFTA Award in 1958.