Found some time to supplement my previous post. This one I'll dedicate to some animators from western Europe. I have to divide Europe in two because some of the best animation in the world comes from Eastern Europe, and it's a region I'm better versed in, so it merits a post of its own. I believe all the filmmakers I've listed are still alive, and most of them are still making films. I know of a few older European animators, but would like to be more familiar with their work before I recommend them.
Denmark:
- Michael Dudok de Wit - One of my all-time favorite animators. He has a very limited output with only four director credits listed on IMDB, but he has also done commercial work and animation on other projects (like Piet Kroon's wonderful
T.R.A.N.S.I.T.). His style tends to favor the spare use of watercolors and slim characters with brushstroke simplicity. His sense of timing is perfect and very distinctive; his characters move beautifully, whether they're calm or frantic. Often cues the motion in his films to the score. His best films suggest, by modest means, a kind of transcendence. My favorite is
The Monk and the Fish, but
Father and Daughter (an Oscar-winner) and
The Aroma of Tea (moving toward abstraction) are just as beautiful. His other film,
Tom Sweep, is fun if less ambitious; it was meant to be the first of a series of animations featuring the character. All of his films can be found online without much trouble, though the quality may leave something to be desired. His only film readily available on DVD is probably
Father and Daughter, which you can probably find on an Oscar-winner DVD.
France:
- Jeremy Clapin - I've watched two of his films (
Good Vibrations and
Une Histoire Vertebrale) and while neither particularly impressed me, he's still clearly someone to watch. He has wit and a knack for betraying expectations. I watched Skhizein just now and must say it's a stronger piece than his previous work. I have a few reservations toward it -- its tone is all too familiar -- but its merits outweigh these easily.
It's also available on a limited edition DVD, if you're so inclined.
- Gobelins school - I don't know a great deal about the institution, but as far as I can tell it's a school for animation. Every so often I stumble across a student animation bearing the school's name, and I've been consistently impressed. They tend to be very short, comedy-driven pieces meant to promote their creators, so they do lack some substance. Still, their timing and pace are incredible, and they often have a wit comparable to Pixar. What they lack in sophistication they make up for in anarchic fun.
Oktapodi, Pyrats, and
Le Building are the three that come to mind quickest.
Italy:
- Bruno Bozzetto - The only Italian animator I'm currently aware of. Most famous for his feature-length
Allegro Non Troppo, which is frequently astounding but also quite uneven. It's essentially a collection of shorts done to music like Fantasia (something it humorously admits), with a rather silly but charming and self-referential live-action framework holding it together. I highly recommend the film, even if some of its segments are weaker. He also did other shorts, however;
Baby Story, Life in a Tin, and
Grasshoppers are some stand-outs.
Allegro Non Troppo and
ten of his shorts are available on R1 DVD in a pretty nice package.
More recently I understand he's done some stuff with Flash, but I haven't delved into this work yet. Probably well worth looking, though. At his worst he's still a likable animator.
Germany:
- Andreas Hykade - One of the most mature and complex animators out there. His early
We Lived in Grass is great, but
The Runt and
Ring of Fire are on an entirely different level. Yet the two couldn't be more different.
The Runt uses bright colors to striking effect, contrasting with the desperate quiet of the story.
Ring of Fire uses the western to deconstruct male sexuality, throwing us into a mad sexual carnival in black and white. Overwhelmingly good. Fantastic use of music and narration. One of my favorite animators working today.
He has a new animation as well,
Love and Theft which is an elaborate and impressive homage to his various inspirations. Through morphing animation he visualizes how his inspirations are digested into his own unique style. All of his films are available for free on his
wesbite in pretty solid quality.
England:
- Mark Baker - This discovery came as a complete surprise. I'd never heard of him before, but I became very enamored of the two films I saw.
Jolly Roger is great, but
The Hill Farm is the best of the two. He creates distinctive characters, usually by pushing types to extremes; character repetition is key, and an interruption of this repetition often fuels the climax. He has a wonderful eye for details and uses sound with raw efficiency. He occasionally ventures into dead-pan, absurd humor, but never at the expense of the beautiful setting he constructs.
The Hill Farm may be a masterpiece.
- Brothers Quay - These fellows are well known on these boards, but they should be mentioned. Certainly you should look them up if you haven't already; their stuff is available via the BFI, Kino, and Zeitgeist. I have only seen
Street of Crocodiles and
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, but their work is fascinating and often brilliant.
- Phil Mulloy - Makes crude, dark, juvenile, violent, psychosexual animations with a roughness which brings to mind cave paintings. A lot of his work is either reductive or obvious to a fault, but he often manages some inventive or striking imagery.
The Chain, Cowboys, and
Intolerance are good places to start.
- Barry Purves - Probably the best puppet animator this side of the Czech Republic. I've only seen a handful (
Screen Play is astoundingly choreographed), but the films I haven't seen sound complex, confrontational, and intriguing. A quick search shows no DVD availability, but I find that hard to believe. There may be something in the UK.
- Ruth Lingford - I've only seen two of her animations (
Death and the Mother, Pleasures of War) and they are dark, somber meditations on death, dedication, violence, sacrifice, and sexuality. Visually arresting, with the stark, spare use of sound. While these two are stylistically very similar, her other animations allegedly feature an array of styles. I look forward to exploring her work more.
- Suzie Templeton - Puppet animator.
Peter and the Wolf,
Dog.
Her shorter works are on her site.
- Bolex Brothers - I haven't seen their feature-length
Tom Thumb, but I loved
The Saint Inspector. The brothers are the producers, from what I understand, so their productions feature various directors.
Switzerland:
- Georges Schwizgebel - A highly-regarded animator who animates in the paint-on-glass style. Some of his films have a morphing, stream-of-consciousness quality. I have mixed feelings about those; some succeed, others don't fare as well. By far my favorite is L'Homme sans ombre, which I fervently recommend. Aside from the beauty of the story, the colors are bold and the perspective shifts and transitions are jaw-drop material.
Belgium:
- Raoul Servais - Another of my favorite animators, even if I've only seen a handful of his work. A surrealist with an inexhaustible imagination and a visual style which is bold, inventive, and diverse.
Siren and
Chromophobia are the two short works I've seen and I adore both. He seems to have a pre-occupation with oppressive forces and how people react to them, but he brings a strong, fresh approach to the material. I've also seen his feature,
Taxandria, which mixes painted environments with live actors using a technique of his own invention. The film has problems (the narrative itself is serviceable, but an 80s-style fantasy film framework is forced upon it, featuring some arbitrary child actor), but it excels in other areas. The painted world of Taxandria is gorgeous (and an elaborate homage to Paul Delvaux) and the film is full of original, idiosyncratic details.
Again, this little survey is by no means comprehensive. I am speaking only from my own experience, so there are doubtlessly grievous omissions. I've also refrained from mentioning some animators, either because I haven't seen enough of their work or because their work didn't leave a substantial enough impression. But hopefully this functions as a strong starting point -- these are among the best animators I've happened across.
More regions to follow when I have more time. I hope someone is benefiting from this!