ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Russian animation director Aleksandr Petrov’s short films, created with the rarely employed, labour-intensive paint-on-glass technique. Using an animation studies approach, this article explores the formal features of Petrov’s signature aesthetic, often described as ‘painting brought to life’. In particular, this discussion of his oeuvre focuses on the ways in which his animation technique facilitates the complex interplay between visual metamorphosis, spatial mutability and temporal ellipsis characteristic of his films. Through a close reading of relevant sequences from a range of works (including both fictional and promotional shorts), this article investigates how the constant metamorphic flow of the director’s imagery engenders what Petrov himself has described as ‘the sense of instability and fluctuation of life’ that permeates his animation. In doing so, it aims to suggest that paint-on-glass films – and under-camera animation more broadly – can challenge and complicate existing assumptions about animation and destabilise traditional hierarchies in film theory discourse.

摘要

本文重点介绍俄罗斯动画导演亚历山大·彼得罗夫（Aleksandr Petrov）的短片，这些短片是采用很少使用的劳动密集型玻璃上漆技术制作的。本文采用动画研究的方法，探索了彼得罗夫（Petrov）标志性美学的形式特征，通常被称为“栩栩如生的绘画”。特别是，关于他的作品的讨论主要集中在他的动画技术促进电影的视觉变形，空间可变性和时间省略特征之间复杂相互作用的方式上。通过仔细阅读一系列作品（包括小说和宣传短片）的相关序列，本文研究了导演影像的不断变质流如何导致彼得罗夫本人描述的贯穿动画的“不稳定感和生活波动”。这样做的目的是建议在玻璃上的电影以及更广泛的摄影机下的动画可以挑战和使关于动画的现有假设复杂化，并破坏电影理论话语中的传统层次结构。