Chronopolis

1982 French stop-animated sci-fi

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Aliens befriend a mountain climber who has a ball.

I was hooked from the get-go with stop-animated decaying of the title screen. Of course, I'm a sucker for this sort of thing anyway, and if you're a fan of Barta, Svankmajer, the Quays, etc., you would likely dig this, too. It's very repetitive, but with a cool synth-y Luc Ferrari score perfectly complimenting the visuals, there's something almost hypnotic about that repetitiveness. And I could have watched that mountain climber dancing with the giant ball for another couple hours. This is definitely a case where a lot of creativity and visual aesthetics makes up for a lack of plot (I'm guessing), a non-engaging narrative, and no real meaning. At least, I didn't grasp any meaning from any of this. It was a very easy movie to just absorb though.

I know nothing about the writer/director, Piotr Kamler, other than he seems to be missing a vowel in his first name. I'd definitely be interested in seeing more.