Neighbours (1952)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

In January 2007 I went to London expressly to attend part of a two-month long Luis Bunuel retrospective held at the National Film Theatre where I caught up with all but one of the remainder of his films. During that same period, a concurrent season of movies featuring Humphrey Bogart (on the 50th anniversary of his death) and Lauren Bacall and another one dedicated to Canadian animator Norman McLaren were also held. Although I am a fan of Animation in general, I was a bit wary of McLaren's work falling in the abstract branch of it but had always been interested in checking it out regardless since the late British film critic Leslie Halliwell deemed his best-known piece BEGONE DULL CARE (1949) worthy of his full **** rating. While the latter was indeed one of several shorts I managed to catch during that one particular evening, I cannot say I was sufficiently impressed to follow it up on my own time, as it were. Still, learning that 3 more films of his were nominated for the Best Short Subject Academy Award, I decided it was high time to reacquaint myself with McLaren's oeuvre given my ongoing Oscar marathon.The 8-minute short under review is the only one of the three to emerge victorious and deservedly so; bafflingly, this won in the Best Documentary Short category while also being nominated for Best Short Subject. The simple plot deals with two neighbors who spend a lazy afternoon basking in the sun and reclining on a chair reading newspapers in front of their respective house but, tellingly, the headlines of one newspaper is completely belied by the other's. Suddenly a flower spurts out from a seed sown right beneath their feet and, after their initial mutual admiration for it, each one lets greed get the better of him and both start claiming it as their own private property. This sets off a battle of wills that soon turns increasingly physical, irrationally violent and ultimately fatal for all three parties; the scene where one erects a barricade between the two houses enclosing the flower on his side of the fence while the other relocates the latter to his advantage or having the flower use its petals to, as it were, take cover from its battling masters adds a nice touch of Surrealism.However, the film's real coup comes at the end when, having trampled on the flower during their struggle, both men are overtaken by a feverish bloodlust that sees them enter each other's home and murder the occupants (a wife and a baby in both cases) through vicious kicking or throwing about! By this time, the violent men have adopted Indian warpaint on their faces and, when they eventually expire, the once-important white fence is transformed into crosses on each respective grave that have been dug where the houses used to stand. With time, more flowers bloom both on the graves themselves and on the earth surrounding them. The end titles, then, is an animated collage of the phrase "Love Thy Neighbor" in various languages. Although the film was originally issued sporting a monotone electronic score by McLaren himself (also available on "You Tube"), I elected to watch it accompanied by a score (recorded in 2010) by an obscure outfit named Versa that very effectively counterpoints the on screen action.

This humorous and dazzling short film from 1952 features the slapstick hijinks of two neighbors in card-board cut-out land who, upon being seduced by a joy-inducing dandelion (and I mean this literally, I'm not referring to a woman), get into an argument over borders, at which point mayhem ensues. It is a simple and short and entertaining fable complete with moral provided at the end, though there's something to be said about how entertaining the action is despite its theme of non-violence like in mainstream cinema too. However, in terms of sheer inventiveness and animated wizardry, this movie is surprising and awe-inspiring. The creativity behind the actions and how it eventually builds is a testament to McLaren's wit and genius.--PolarisDiB

This short, which combines live-action with stop-motion animation, was nominated for two Oscars and won for Best Documentary Short. The events depicted become more ironic as they unfold and to describe any of the details to any great degree would be unfair to the short and to future viewers. Totally recommended.

Neighbours is an amazing and sometimes vicious animated masterpiece.