If
the animators, the Brothers Quay had made Colonia
instead of Florian Gallenberger, Emma Watson and Daniel Bruhl, it would
have been a much better film. It might have looked a little bit like this film,
but not exactly so, because nothing else looks exactly like the remarkable
debut animated feature of artists Joaquin Cocina & Cristobal Leon. They
plunge viewers into a nightmarish world of fairy tales and Chilean history in The Wolf House, which screens during
this year’s Neighboring Scenes: New Latin American Cinema.
Maria
Wehrle was punished severely for allowing three little pigs to escape from her
German crypto-Christian commune clearly modeled after the Pinochet-supporting
Colonia Dignidad, so she follows their example. However, the pastor, a.k.a. the
Big Bad Wolf, kept a close eye on her, as his narration explains. After finding
refuge a mega-archetypal cottage in the woods, Wehle is reunited with two of
her fugitive pigs, whom her fevered mind morphs into children for her to look
after. Alas, things take a rather dark turn when they run out of food.
That
is sort of the narrative gist of Wolf
House, but not really. Story is definitely secondary to Cocina and Leon.
They are more concerned with creating a nightmarish world, which they
hand-crafted from raw materials as part of gallery installations throughout
several countries. This is an extraordinarily macabre manifestation of stop-motion
animation that bears comparison to the Quays and Jan Svankmaker. In some ways,
it could considered the stop-motion equivalent of some of Terry Gilliam and
Bill Plympton’s trippier work.
It
is not just the frequently disturbing sight of characters being built up from
the inside-out and then broken down again that will unnerve viewers. The Lobo
Casa is a decidedly creepy place that would not be out of place in Calvin
Reeder’s The Oregonian, which
basically gives the audience an all too vivid idea of what Hell looks like (if
you haven’t seen it, don’t). The art direction, credited to Cocina, Leon, and
Natalia Geisse is impressive, but punishing.
