The Amazing Mr. Bickford (Video 1987)Several pieces of Frank Zappa's music are set against clay animation by Bruce Bickford. Director:Frank ZappaWriter:Frank Zappa |
|
| 0Share... |
The Amazing Mr. Bickford (Video 1987)Several pieces of Frank Zappa's music are set against clay animation by Bruce Bickford. Director:Frank ZappaWriter:Frank Zappa |
|
| 0Share... |
We enter Bruce Bickford's studio in Santa Monica, California; it's 1978. Various technicians are at work; drawers upon drawers are full of figurines. Bickford says a few things, and then, with Zappa's symphonic music on the soundtrack, we're taken into various Bickford creations. Knife-wielding Africans fight rifle-toting Whites. A drawing of a toilet fills the screen, various foods emerge from it, and they change shapes swiftly into images of animals and things. In claymation, three everymen move through landscapes of danger and conflict. Moments of the every day change quickly into grotesque images. Little holds its shape for more than a moment. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
This clay animation is violent, sexually explicit and disturbing. No wonder Frank Zappa found it interesting. Some of this animation has been seen before in Zappa's "Baby Snakes" and "Dub Room Special". The rest is previously unreleased. Zappa's music provides an eerie accompaniment to Bickford's images. This tape is currently out of print, let's hope that Gail re-releases it on DVD when the videos start coming out again. At just shy of an hour, any more would be overwhelming.