Phuong Mai Nguyen’s short, gorgeously quirky animated film Chez Moi was nominated for an Oscar this year. Via Short of the week:
As the title suggests (it translates as “My House”), Chez Moi explores concepts of ownership, safety and stasis against forces of change and accommodation. Put so bluntly, the film’s themes sound academic, but they are powerfully provocative in the way they center wholly around the perspective of young Hugo, and the psycho-sexual frustrations of seeing his Mom take up with a giant bird-man.
A giant bird-man! What!? Yes indeed, Hugo comes down to the morning breakfast table only to be encountered by a strange raven in a shirt and tie. While certainly a major deviation into fantasy, the scenario is played straight, which is simultaneously grounding yet disorienting.
There’s a lot to admire about the film, from its terrific art direction to its deliberate, but never boring, pacing. The surreality peeks out in measured but effective ways, and the show-stopping fantasy sequence leading into the denouement really delivers. If I were to call out a specific element of Nguyen’s craft for praise however, it would be the sensitivity of her observation and its translation into character movements. Most independent animators make dialogue-free shorts in school. While I understand it as an exercise—it forces visual storytelling, and removes some of the complexity of sound production—it is also devilishly hard to execute well. Characters usually under, or, over-emote, and neither that stoicism or exaggeration is fitting. Nguyen has this uncanny feel for crafting very subtle movement in her characters that communicate much. So, while our giant-bird man is sometimes humorously accurate in his bird-like movements, somehow they succeed also in attempting paternalism. The mother’s journey from cautious unease, to anger, to protectiveness is perfectly communicated.