Synopsis
The Infinite Variety Show.
William Shakespeare, without saying a word, gives a quick run through of all his plays in a very special audition.
1990 Directed by Barry JC Purves
William Shakespeare, without saying a word, gives a quick run through of all his plays in a very special audition.
Next: The Infinite Variety Show, Next - Shakespeare in 5 minutes, ネクスト, 下一个, Další, prosím
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It's one month after William Shakespeare's birthday, but that's no excuse to not watch this film again. One of Aardman's best, staging and character movement. A great direction, which I wish could be real, by Barry Purves, who would later become Head Animator for Mars Attacks.
There’s something I find very unsettling with the look of the animation in this, however it really works with what it does is very well animated and edited and has a lot going on.
Watched on the big screen on film
Some being John malcovich shit.
Very weird to program this to screen before Bring it on. I could feel the audience getting restless
i am unfortunately not too familiar with shakespeare's works and a lot of this flew over my head. but this was the best one out of all the aardvark shorts i've seen tonight, so far. the music is joyful and lilting, and lends momentum to the series of quick sketches the little clay guy does. all strung together very bloody well.
Made as part of Aardman Animations ‘Lip Synch’ series, Barry Purves’s ‘Next’ strays from the original pitch of using actual recordings as a soundtrack, instead presenting a five minute short with no dialogue whatsoever. Aardman were obviously more dedicated to quality than to rigid pitches however, and while it may seem like a strange fit for the ‘Lip Synch’ series, ‘Next’ is one of the studio’s finest ever films. The short focuses on a puppet version of William Shakespeare who, in an astonishingly expressive display of puppet pantomime, acts out representative sequences from every one of his plays in just five minutes. The producer watching this grand audition is a puppet version of theatre director Peter Hall but, in a…
This is a lavish stop-motion, puppet film that was seminal for me back in the early 90s after it appeared on a treasured Aardman VHS compilation.
I was delighted that it still holds up and to find that the director also made Screen Play, another favourite that occupied much of my imagination during that time and is arguably even more impressive.
Both films are full of visual inventiveness, wit and beauty. I’ve been freshly inspired by them.