Priit Pärn es un animador y artista gráfico estonio que quizá no sea demasiado conocido, pero que es considerado en bastantes círculos uno de los mejores animadores de la actualidad. Sus cortos, o al menos los pocos que he podido ver, mezclan humor negro, surrealismo y crítica al sistema, todo ello realzado por un lenguaje visual muy rico.
He encontrado tres cortos ripeados de un vhs, la calidad no era demasiado buena pero los he cropeado un poco y añadido un par de filtros, creo el resultado final es bastante aceptable. El primero que lanzo suele aparecer a menudo en listas de los mejores cortos de animación de la historia. Tiene subtítulos incrustados en inglés, aunque apenas tiene diálogos.
Por cierto, auess publicó aquí en su día entre otros el corto de Pärn 'Karl and marilyn'.
Sobre el autor:
An illegitimate conceptual crossbreeding of Lenny Bruce, George Grosz and Jean-Luc Godard, Pärn's animated films are bitingly funny, complex explorations of the effects of ideological systems on human beings.
His work has received roaring applause and fancy awards, but like much of independent animation, Pärn's films are rarely shown outside the festival circuit. In addition to being an animator, Pärn is also a noted graphic artist, teacher and lecturer whose influence is so far-reaching that students from Finland, Switzerland and America travel to Estonia to work with him. And later this year, he'll receive the prestigious ASIFA award from the Association Internationale du Film d'Animation, which is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to the art of animation.
Breakfast on the Grass (1988)
Pärn's "Breakfast on the Grass" (1988) is considered by many to be one of the masterpieces of animation. In examining a few moments in the daily lives of four Estonians, Pärn trenchantly critiques life in the Soviet Union by giving viewers a rare glimpse of the absurdities of Communist society and what people endure on a daily basis just to survive. As with "Triangle," "Breakfast on the Grass" astonished Russian audiences with its frank portrait of modern Soviet life.
"I think the general audience was not prepared for this kind of animation," recalls Pärn. "It is a description of a very concrete society told in a realistic way using a dramatic structure that is closer to a live-action feature. But the story is performed using the tools of animation -- visual gags, metamorphosis and different drawing styles. Usually so-called serious stories are dark, heavy, slow and boring. I try to make my serious film funny, multileveled and ironic. I think this fusing of the serious and comic confused people."
Grand Prix from the XVIII Tampere Short Film Festival, Finland 1988
Grand Prix, best film in category C and critics prize from VIII Animated Film Festival in Zagreb, Croatia 1988
3rd Audience Prize from Short Film Festival in Bonn, Germany 1988
1st Prize in category C from 1st Animated Film Festival in Shanghai, 1988
Grand Prix from the International Animated Film Festival Cinanima in Espinho, Portugal 1988
1st Prize from the XXI USSR Film Festival in Baku, 1988
Best Animated Film Award from Melbourne Film Festival, Australia 1988
3rd Prize from VIII Odense Film Festival, Denmark 1989
Nika - the highest prize of the USSR film industry 1989
Priit Parn - Breakfast on the Grass.avi
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eLink:
Priit Parn - Breakfast on the Grass.avi 
Time Out (1984)
It's not always easy to follow domestic routines. Especially if you are a frenzied little cat with a lot of other things to keep track of.
Grand Prix Varna Animated Film Festival, Bulgaria 1985
1st Prize from the International Animated Film Festival Cinanima in Espinho, Portugal 1985
Best animated film Bilbao Short Film Festival, Spain 1985
Priit Parn - Time Out (1984).avi
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eLink:Priit Parn - Time Out (1984).avi Hotel E (1992)
In 1992, the year after Estonia became independent, Pärn completed "Hotel E," a bitter critique of the hypocrisy of both the East and the West. While the East represses art and language, he contends, the West, for all its freedom, lacks art and language and, with that, individuality. Playing with stereotypes, Pärn paints the East as a dark, gray world while filling the West with bright colors and friendly, smiling faces. Beneath this pop-art sugarcoating, he seems to be saying, the West is a culture of sterility and illusion. No one does anything, no ones says anything, yet everything is "just great."
"I had been traveling a lot between East and West," says Pärn. "I was between two systems. This is my own story up to a certain point. This is not a film about two systems, about East and West; for me it is a story about this person." While Estonia's independence afforded Pärn more freedom, it came with a price: "In the Soviet time everything which was not permitted was forbidden. So there were an endless number of restrictions that were political, but just insane. Now all the limits are connected with money. The final result is very often the same as before, sometimes worse."
<a href="http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... 0043eh.jpg" target="_blank"></a>
Priit Parn - Hotel E (1992).avi
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eLink:Priit Parn - Hotel E (1992).avi Más Info:
http://www.salon.com/people/bc/2001/07/ ... index.html
http://www.awn.com/gallery/parn/
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