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A Chairy Tale

Claude Jutra, Norman McLaren, 1957, 9 min 54 s
In this Oscar-nominated short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man ...
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In this Oscar-nominated short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a sort of dance with the chair. The musical accompaniment is by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. This virtuoso film is the result of a collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra.

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  • A Chairy Tale

    A Chairy Tale

    A fairy tale in the modern manner, told without words by film artist Norman McLaren. In the film, a chair (animated by Evelyn Lambart) that declines to be sat upon and a young man perform a sort of pas de deux. The musical accompaniment is by India's Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal.

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Donald McWilliams By Donald McWilliams
As filmmaking, A Chairy Tale is a virtuoso piece. A mélange of single-frame animation of a chair and an actor, multi-speed shooting, reverse shooting, moving time exposures, and the chair-as-marionette, being operated with black nylon thread, for the most part by Evelyn Lambart and Herb Taylor. A chair refuses to let a man sit on it. After many trials, the man (Claude Jutra) realizes that the chair wants the same privilege. The man concedes. Only then does the chair agree to accept his role in life, that of being sat upon. The film, with an improvised score by Ravi Shankar, was a big success, yet co-directors McLaren and Jutra were uneasy. Brilliant though it was, they realized they had in fact made a film about assimilation. The chair was still the loser.
Director
Norman McLaren
Claude Jutra
Animation
Evelyn Lambart
Music
Ravi Shankar
Chatur Lal
Maurice Blackburn
Cast or participant
Claude Jutra
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