Anomalisa

Last weekend I attended a special screening of the film Anomalisa followed by a Q&A with the animation supervisor for the film, Dan Driscoll. Written by Charlie Kaufman, the film is an incredible and beatuiful stop motion animation that has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Anomalisa tells the story of a man who is stuck in a mundane world, only to fall in love with the only person who can bring color back into his life. The narrative reveals the mysterious and dark workings of the characters' worlds around them but the film ends ambiguously, leaving me wondering and with numerous unanswered questions.

While the story itself was unique, the animation was the highlight of the film and Driscoll shared many interesting aspects of the animation process. I was particularly intrigued by the careful attention payed to the movements and mannerism that would be executed for each physical action taken by the animated characters. Driscoll revealed the very slow process of shooting only a few frames per day, which only was possible after months of planning for each various individual scene. This attention to detail was evident in the animation, bringing the figures to life and adding a sense of humanness to the silicone "people" that one would never expect.