La course à l'abîme (1992) User Reviews

Very mediocre

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 March 2016]

"La course à l'abîme" is a 25-year-old 4.5-minute short film by Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel and as usual with him, it is an animated movie. I cannot say I am surprised that he did not receive a lot of awards attention for this one here. I thought the story was fairly uninteresting, the style of animation was not to my liking, even if that is subjective and the music was loud and obnoxious and did not fit at all what we saw, maybe the most pretentious aspect of this little film. Subtlety can be a virtue. This one here has none. That is also why I do not recommend checking this one out. I really hope Mr. Schwizgebel has done better with most of his other works. I give these 4 minutes here a thumbs-down.

Like Going To A Good Art Museum

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 23 August 2008]

A printed description of this animated short film described it as "Two riders on galloping horses disappear, then reappear, alternating with other animated images moving to the same rhythm as their own." That is an accurate description but it doesn't do justice to the stunning beauty of this film.

The artwork was fantastic: a series of oil paintings set in motion. The colors are rich, have texture and it's like going to a good art museum and looking at masters' works coming to life.

This animated story is all about motion, set to the music, which is nothing new but it's uniquely presented here. This is a pure art, not a "Cat Concerto" or some Looney Tunes in which the same effect is done for laughs. (That's no knock: those were great, but this is done, not for humor, but strictly for art.....and it is magnificent.

Georges Schwizgebel is the director and animator and the Boston Symphony Orchestra provides the music. Overall: very impressive.

How did they do that?!

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 1 November 2008]

This is a truly unique film. Even though I have seen several "art films" where they have set classical music to animated images, this one takes it quite a bit further. As you hear the opera "The Damnation of Faust - Scene XVIII" (performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra), you do not see traditional animation. Instead, the images are all apparently painted--or at least that how it appears--yet, it moves like traditional animation! How do they make a moving animated painting?! Now given that the brush strokes are rather simple (in a Post-Impressionist style), this still is an utterly amazing thing--paintings don't just come to life everyday! Now as for the story, there really isn't one per se. Instead, the short film consists of a variety of images that constantly move in perfect timing to the music. It's certainly not a kid's animated film but more like something you'd expect to see in a modern art museum. I sure wish I were able to see this on the big screen---it would be marvelous.

Overall, a truly impressive and unique work of art.

Animate.

[Polaris_DiB · 10/10 · 24 October 2006]

Oh man, this is one of those highly complicated conceptualizations that's almost unfair to try to review.

It starts out as a moving expressionist painting of horse-and-riders that morph into various shapes that inhabit the world. The camera at first seems to be following them, but as the piece advances and the camera gets further away, the conception is revealed to be a single moving painting that the camera is panning around in a spiral motion.

Which ultimately puts too many levels of the exploration of motion into it for me to discuss here. However, at an entertainment level it's really fun, and at an artistic level it's really beautiful. It's definitely "about" animation, with almost more movement than the eye can completely relate to.

--PolarisDiB

Brilliant Use of Simple Artistic Technique and a Great PIece of Music

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 1 May 2019]

Using "The Damnation of Faust" as an anchor, we are driven through a series of images, paintings, that move to an astonishing climax. The constant movement toward the inevitable makes one keep his or her eye on the end point. This is a use of classical music, not as filler, but as essential to the theme. The colors are muted and that also adds to the rather sad realities of the story of Faust.

Well delivered to feel meaty and satisfying despite being quite simple to describe as a film

[bob the moo · 12 February 2014]

Meaning "the race to the bottom" this short film sees two figures on horses moving through a landscape that contains others in movement, while an opera plays over the top. This animation is simple to describe but better to experience as it does one thing but does it mostly very well. Despite not being a fan of opera, I can appreciate the tone of it and the way that it builds and moves and peaks in a way that it is dramatic and compelling when well delivered. This is one such piece here and it works well to draw the viewer into the movement of the animation. As a story there is nothing to really discuss on the surface of it, but the movement of the images is well placed with the music so that it does feel like we have something with an uniform flow and delivery.

The style of animation is like an oil painting – not a hugely detailed one but oil on canvas for sure and often you can see and feel the strokes of the brush. This sense is maintained even though the figures move and the eye of the viewer via the camera is taken around the painting and it works very well as a style and the artistic feel of it as "classical" art (as oil on canvas makes me feel anyway) fits well with the "proper" art of the opera. As a piece of art it works very well and feels meatier and more satisfying than I would have expected.