It was surprising to hear Colleen rave about an animated film when she herself has said that animation is not her thing but she was very impressed with Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues.
We posted the trailer a few months back when the film was making the festival rounds but it looks like Paley’s film will not have to wait to find an audience on DVD.
Andrew will be happy to know that he’ll have a chance to see it sooner rather than later. After much fanangling with the rights, thirteen, a public broadcaster out of New York City, has managed to acquire rights to the film which is now available under creative commons licensing. The result? The rest of us benefit from the film’s availability online.
Sita Sings the Blues is streaming for free at Reel 13, the broadcasters blog, and though there’s no apparent “expiry date”, I urge you to check it sooner rather than later because who knows how long this opportunity will stick around. To make life that much better, it’s available to everyone not just American IPs.
I know what I’m doing when I get home tonight…(right after my screening of Pontypool (our review)).
Thank You! What a great find!
So I watched the first 35 minutes or so (will have to finish later) and I’m not sure what I think about it. I love the music and I like the different types of animation utilized, but I don’t like the way the story is told. I don’t like how un-serious the thing is taken. Not that the movie has to be a super melo-drama, but it’s almost told like a joke. I get that it’s a fable, but the “three people around the water cooler” re-telling the story and not really knowing exactly what they’re talking about and making jokes, etc. Then some of the characters and voices are depicted like whacky caricatures as though they’re on Adult Swim or something. Humor is fine (see Persepolis), but I don’t like the whackiness of the whole thing.
Still, I do like it for the other reasons. Again, the music is awesome.
Just watched this (with the kiddies -> There were many questions asked during the film!)
I did like the movie a lot, but I didn’t care much for the modern vignette, which of course turns out to be somewhat autobiographical on the part of the Director/Animator.
I love the vocal stylings of Annette Hanshaw and the visuals are to die for in this movie. The shifting images of Rama and Sita underscore just how many times those stories have been told and morphed over time. I guess Paley was striving for universal with the ‘modern’ thread, but it felt clumsily added in a way to stretch the movie out to feature length as much as anything else. I found myself groaning ever time it cut to New York or San Francisco.
Other than that, what a fabulous film.
Was going to sit down with this again this morning, and REEL 13 has stopped hosting the film. Sad.
Ah crap. I didn’t get a chance to see it either Friday or Saturday and now it’s gone. :*(
Looks like they were just having a technical glitch. It’s BACK!
Nice. Will watch tonight before it disappears again!
http://mumbaimirror.com/article/54/2011080720110807052728135114f274a/Battling-for-free-speech.html
I read that same article Kurt and it’s infuriating – the film really is a tribute to the legend. I bought a copy of it on DVD (even though it’s been available free online in many ways) because I think it’s just a tremendous work from Paley. I love every bit of it (yep, including the modern sections).
Andrew, I think the best parts are actually the improvised tellings of the story from the 3 main narrators. I don’t see it so much as “wacky” narration, but a method of conveying how strong the story is in that it can survive re-tellings that mix up details. I suppose some may find that an offensive part of the film, but it shows that the main thrust of the legend stays alive as it gets handed down through the generations.
And the music is wonderful.
I bought the 720p version directly from Paley for $5 off her website. My kids have seen the film (it has a permanent place on our iPad) probably upwards of 15 times…They like it a lot, the music and the animation and the amusing banter of the three-person exposition/chorus in between the songs.