REVOLVER (directed by Jonas Odell, Stig Bergqvist, Marti Ekstrand and Lars Ohlson) is one of my favourite animated shorts ever. I first saw this film at a festival in the early 1990s and I was mesmerized immediately. (Seeing it projected in a theatre is definitely the right way to go). “Cyclical” is the only way to describe the structure and the end result is evocative, poetic and haunting, at least to me.
I had a copy on VHS which went missing (permanently borrowed, is my guess). So years later, when in Sweden, I made a trip to Film Tecknarna to buy the copy I have now. I was hoping to meet the filmmakers themselves but that did not happen, sadly.
I have never been able to figure out why some non-linear films films are tantalising in their ambiguity but other, similar films are merely vague and annoying. Perhaps the difference is when there is an underlying structure, with its own internal logic that appeals aesthetically in some way to the mind? I remember reading somewhere that the film-makers were interested in making a film with the same approach to repetition as a piece of music (and the soundtrack is great too).
Put your headphones on, give it your full attention and allow yourself to be hypnotised.
