***** (5 stars)
“Gloriously life-affirming”
Australian stop-motion artist Adam Elliot is new to me – somehow I managed to miss his previous animation, Mary and Max. Oh my goodness what a talent! What an imagination! And what a splendid collection of characters, settings and props – every one of which is hand-made. It’s visually stunning, brilliantly created, and a real emotional roller-coaster [insider reference to a significant moment fully intentional here].
Grace Pudel is a twin. She and her brother Gilbert live with their father: their mother died at their birth – just as snails do – and their father, a French street performer who moved to Australia when he married their mother, is severely disabled after an unfortunate accident. Their life is hard, but not without its joys, until the father dies.
Heartless Child Services separate the children and place them the opposite sides of the continent. Both are extremely unhappy, but have no way of being re-united: all they can do is write to each other. Gilbert is lodged with apple farmers who practice a very extreme religion – this is so horrifically well-portrayed I couldn’t laugh at it. Grace is simply neglected by her incredibly toothily smiling ‘parents’, who follow one extreme fad after another. The only things that make Grace’s life bearable are her growing collection of live snails and snail memorabilia
– until she comes across the indomitable Pinky, who brings life and colour into her drab existence.
You wouldn’t think things could get any worse, but they do. I was beginning to wonder whether there would be any relief in this catalogue of disasters – but be reassured, dear reader: there is light at the end of a very dark tunnel, but I’m not going to share any spoilers!
Memoir of a snail explores the strength of human connections, the extent to which people will go in pursuit of what they firmly believe to be right regardless of its effect on others, and humans’ reactions to extreme stress and unhappiness.
Surrounding oneself with a snail shell of Stuff creates an impermeable barrier to any sort of relationship with other humans or the world outside: it can take a great shock or an immense amount of courage to leave the safety of the shell and dare to risk being alive, to live rather than simply exist. Thank heaven for Pinky’s final utterance – “potatoes”…
This is a gloriously life-affirming film – which is available on the BFI website if you weren’t able to be at the FilmHouse last night. There’s a lot of humour [though some of it made me wince rather than laugh]. It’s an exploration of the perils of hoarding and keeping guinea pigs, and a very strong warning about the dangers of extreme religion [and possibly apples].
I am definitely going to add it to my ‘when you’re feeling really bad and need to know there’s hope somewhere’ list.
I hope you’ll discover and enjoy it too.
Memoir of a snail, Manipulate Festival, Film House Edinburgh, RUN ENDED
ScotsGay Arts 