Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"C'est l'aviron" is a Canadian French-language short film from 1944, so already over 70 years old. It is from the days of World War II and the director is one of Canada's most known: Norman McLaren. Needless to say, he made this one also in cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada. There is also no need to translate the French title, "aviron" means "rudder", that's all you need to know. It is a black-and-white short film and judging only from the animation I probably would not have given this film a rating above 4, but the music is really good here. I like the old sound of it and it is actually very catchy, even if it is a very simple song without any depth at all. Overall, the song is just too nice to let me not recommend this one. One of my favorites from Norman McLaren.

C'est l'aviron (1944) *** (out of 4)While there's certainly nothing ground-breaking to be found here, this three minute short from Norman McLaren is certainly well-made and it at least keeps you attention throughout its running time. There's not really any plot but we've got a Canadian song playing in the background while we see various images including the front of a boat moving through the water as well as scenes moving in the clouds. I don't know French so I couldn't understand the song but even without knowing the lyrics I thought it was rather catchy. I'd also argue that the animation has a very good look to it and helps improve the entertainment level.

Norman McLaren was a very prolific Canadian animator who was born in the UK. Most of his films would be described as 'arty' and are pretty much unknown here in the States. However, I've seen several of his films on various DVD collections and I like these sorts of shorts--and was thrilled to see a seven disk set of his work. This particular short is from the first disk.When I put "C'est L'Aviron", my daughter loudly told me that she hated the film, and I can understand someone feeling that way. After all, this is a film that certainly is NOT highly commercial in style! Roughly translated (very roughly--I am NO expert), the title means "The Oar" or "The Rowing"---or something like this. The film is in black & white and consists of a Canadian song about rowing that accompanies McLaren's animation. Still images pass by--giving the film a nice artsy 3-D look. Arty, yes. Fun, not especially. I think McLaren did a nice job here--it shows a definite improvement in his style and art over the earlier films in this set.