Romance

You may not recognize yourself in here (just yet!) but you may, like me, see something of your parents or your grandparents. An old couple, who have obviously been together for many decades, go through the day.

The man is somewhat static, focused on fixing a broken alarm clock. His wife goes about the daily chores which include cleaning her husband’s glasses at regular intervals. The feeling is one of two people utterly used to and comfortable in each other’s company. Not a great deal happens but as the title suggests, romance is not dead between the two.

This charming animated short was created by students from the Bezalel Academy in Israel. Ore Peleg was responsible for direction, story, animation and compositing while Roni Cohen was in charge of art, modeling, lighting and rendering. Again, students from this small but over a century old academy come up with world class animation – congratulations to all involved.

High Water

Sometimes you have to be reminded how much your loved ones mean to you.  In this animated short by Ewan Green who created this for his degree, an old man is taught a lesson that you should not take your nearest and dearest for granted.

I particularly like the use of color in this short, both in terms of the lack of it in the main characters and also its overuse in the dream sequence that the old woman has – reminiscent of a certain film with a pair of ruby slippers!  Overall though, it is the gentleness of the film which appears – and almost languid take on regret and reconciliation. Thanks, Ewan!