As we complete year three of our monthly Pantheon series, it’s about time we recognized the art of animation. Mr. Walter Disney, for one, would approve our selection of his 1940 release, Fantasia, a movie conceived to elevate cartoons to the level of high art (and to justify the cost over-runs on Mickey Mouse’s short, The Sorceror’s Apprentice). Comprising eight musical pieces conducted by Leopold Stokowski and animated by different teams at the Disney company, overseen by Ben Sharpsteen and Walt himself, with a little light live action featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra in between, the movie gives us a fulsome and eclectic program: from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and Stravinski’s Rite of Spring to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.
Granted, some episodes hit stronger than others, but on a technical level the work here was often groundbreaking and astonishingly accomplished — that also goes for the film’s soundtrack, originally produced in the innovative “Fantasound” process, an early experiment in stereophonic recording.
Sunday’s Pantheon screening will feature a 20-minute introduction and talkback.
One of the strange and beautiful things that have happened in the world.
Otis Ferguson
Various
USA
1940
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Also in This Series
Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)
The crowning glory of classical French cinema, this sumptuous melodrama brings to life the early 19th century Boulevard du Crime in Paris, where popular audiences for mime shows and carnival rub shoulders with wealthy patrons of classical theatre.
The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut)
The Mexico/Texas borderlands, 1913: Pike (William Holden) leads his gang of aging outlaws on a foray south for one last hurrah. Peckinpah's masterpiece, a savage lament for men who believe in nothing but find respect by dying in vain.
The Ascent
During the darkest winter of WWII, two Soviet partisans venture through the backwoods of Belarus in search of food, always at risk of falling into enemy hands. In her masterpiece Larisa Shepitko zeroes in on profound spiritual and philosophical themes.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
I Am Cuba
Infused with a palpable love for the country and a righteous anger at the injustices of the Batista era, I Am Cuba features some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed. A euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and revolutionary cinema.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Fantasia
Walt Disney pushed the boundaries of animation and sound recording when he put together a movie concert: eight classical pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Stravinski et al, each animated in a different style. It's playful, sometimes cute, other times inspired.
Image: © Disney, 1940