Harpya

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Harpya
The word harpya in red capital letters against a black background
Title card
Directed byRaoul Servais
Written byRaoul Servais
Starring [nl]
Fran Waller Zeper
CinematographyWalter Smets
Music byLucien Goethals
Production
company
Absolon Films
Release date
  • May 1979 (1979-05) (Cannes)
  • March 1980 (1980-03) (France)
Running time
9 minutes[1]
CountryBelgium
LanguageNone

Harpya is a 1979 Belgian short comedy horror film written and directed by Raoul Servais. It is about a man who tries to live with a harpy, a half-woman and half-bird of prey with insatiable appetite. It stars  [nl] as the man and Fran Waller Zeper as the harpy. The film is nine minutes long and without spoken dialogue. It explores themes of authority and domination, which Servais had done before on a larger, social level, but here applied to a personal relationship.

Servais, who began to make animated short films in the 1950s, wanted to move away from the cartoon format and invented a new technique for combining animation and live action specifically for Harpya. The film was positively received by critics, won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and gave international renown to its director. Servais abandoned the technique he used in Harpya because it was too time consuming, but continued to combine actors and animation in his later films.

Plot[]

It is night in a city during the Belle Époque.[2] A man with a moustache[a] walks down a street when he hears the cries of a woman, rushing to find a man strangling the crying woman in a fountain. He knocks out the assailant and discovers the woman is in fact a harpy, a large white bird of prey with the bald head and breasts of a human woman. The man takes her to his home, where he lives with his parrot, to shelter and feed her. He soon discovers the harpy's insatiable appetite: she flies to his dinner table and eats all his food, forcing him to go to bed hungry. At night, when he searches for something to eat, the harpy appears to have eaten his parrot and immediately flies up behind him and steals any food he finds. When he attempts to escape from the house, she overwhelms him and eats the lower part of his body, forcing him to move around on his arms.

The man puts on some music and when the record player gets stuck the harpy is absorbed by the repetitive noise, giving the man a chance to crawl out of the house. Crawling down the street, attentive to sounds and briefly scared by a gargoyle, he finds a snack bar named Friture Gargantua.[b] At the same time in the house, the record player stops, and as the man eats chips in a park, the harpy finds him and eats his snack. The man is enraged and begins to strangle her, but a police officer hears her cries and knocks the man to the ground with his baton. The harpy looks at the officer in glee.

Themes[]

Harpya explores a recurring theme in the films of Raoul Servais: authority, domination and oppression. This is reflected in the story about the harpy who dominates the simple, middle-class protagonist as well as in the atmosphere and dark colour scheme of the film. Unlike in the director's earlier films, which treat domination in relation to society at large, Harpya approaches the theme on an individual level through a personal relationship.[4] The film marks the beginning of a period where self-exploration became central in Servais' filmmaking.[5]

Together with  [fr] (1966), Harpya stands out in Servais' filmography due to its pessimistic tone.[6] Servais downplays its seriousness and describes it as a parody of the vampire genre: a horror parody about a gentle bourgeois man who invites a monster to his home and is devoured by it, with no big philosophical idea behind the story.[7] The film has been interpreted as misogynist, but Servais argues this is wrong and its target is domineering people in general, not women in particular.[8] Philippe Moins, who has written several monographs about Servais and his works, says Servais is not a misogynist but the film can leave such an impression.[9]

The harpy shares her partially human form with the mermaid in Servais' 1968 film  [fr], and the motif of the half human is emphasised when the protagonist in Harpya loses the bottom half of his body.[4] In an academic paper about Servais, Manuela Rosignoli argues there is a theme of duality throughout the director's career that can be traced to Belgium's division between Dutch-language Flemish and French-language Walloon culture. Servais grew up Flemish but with a French name and parents of Walloon origin.[10]

Production[]

Servais was established as a central figure in Belgian animation before he made Harpya. He made his first animated short film in 1959 and taught animation at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent from 1966. In 1969 he co-founded the animation studio Pen-Film and in 1976 he co-created the Belgisch Animatiefilmcentrum (lit. 'Belgian Animation Film Centre').[11] He got the idea for Harpya after a night when he kept waking up from nightmares. He imagined it as a horror parody where the story revolves around a harpy, a winged female monster from Greek mythology.[2] Harpies are for example known from the Argonautica, which tells the story of how the cursed king Phineus was tormented by harpies who stole his food and brought him to near starvation.[12] Harpya was the third film where Servais drew material from mythology, following Siren and Pegasus (1973).[6] Harpya was produced by Absolon Films and received support from the Flemish Government's ministry of culture.[13]

Harpya marked a new technical development in Servais' career, because it was the first time he combined animation with live actors.[14] He said he had exhausted what he could do with the traditional animated cartoon, having used drawing styles ranging from the simple to the complex, the spontaneous to visuals close to interwar expressionism, and he thought it was necessary to try something different.[15] He travelled to London to study techniques for special effects used in contemporary commercial cinema, but since they were too expensive he had to invent his own process, which took a month.[16]

There are three actors in Harpya:  [nl] as the man, Fran Waller Zeper as the harpy and Sjoert Schwibethus as the assailant.[1] Servais and the cinematographer Walter Smets filmed the actors at 24 frames per second against a black velvet background.[17] The footage where characters appear to move without using their legs was created by digging a ditch.[18] For the animation part of the production, Servais created silhouette shapes made of Scotchlite corresponding to each frame of footage of the actors that was selected for the film. He placed the silhouettes on a layer in a multiplane camera setup and used a semi-transparent mirror in front of the camera to front-project the characters onto the plane. Through this process, which demanded high precision in order to work, he could use different planes for characters and surroundings and film them together frame by frame.[19] The process was very time consuming, partially because Servais was the only person who knew it and had to perform it without help from assistants.[16]

Servais says Harpya was visually influenced by Flemish expressionist painters.[20] Others have described it as influenced by surrealist painters, especially René Magritte.[21] Servais had worked for Magritte in the 1950s, when the latter created a large mural at the Knokke Casino, but they had not got along well.[22] According to the journalist Wim de Poorter of  [nl], the influence from Magritte is apparent in Harpya's sober scenery, soft colour tones and shadows in moonlight.[6] The film historian Cinzia Bottini says the imagery of hats and an apple is reminiscent of Magritte's paintings.[4] Servais says he has been influenced by surrealism, and owes his understanding of the movement to Magritte, but feels closer to magic realist painters such as Paul Delvaux.[23] The electronic music score for Harpya was created by Lucien Goethals.[6]

Release[]

Harpya competed at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, held from 10 to 24 May.[24] It was the third time Servais had one of his short films selected for the festival. He had previously participated with Goldframe (1969) and Operation X-70 (1971); the latter won the Special Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.[25] Harpya was subsequently shown out of competition at a series of other festivals, including the 1979 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.[26] It was released in French cinemas in March 1980 as part of Mondocartoon, a programme of ten animated short films selected by  [fr] and  [fr] and distributed by Pink Splash with the tagline Palmarès du dessin animé mondial (transl. Award-winning world cartoons).[27] Harpya was shown in the United States as part of the 1981 International Tournée of Animation.[28]

Harpya has been available on home media since 1996 when the short films of Servais were released on a VHS tape.[29] Servais' short films have been collected on several DVDs; the earliest that featured Harpya was released by a Japanese company.[30] European DVDs include one released by Folioscope and SFSL in 2004 and one released by Belgium's Cinematek in 2019.[31]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Derek Hill of Sight & Sound and Wim de Poorter of Ons Erfdeel compared Harpya to Servais' previous films. Hill called it "by far the most complex" work he had done[32] and Poorter wrote that its pessimistic tone makes it stand out, although its music contributes to an ironic and less serious side.[6]  [fr] of  [fr] wrote that Harpya should be regarded as a masterpiece of animation also by people who are uninterested in its "phantasmagoric universe".[33] Le Monde's  [fr] said it was the showpiece of Mondocartoon and called its painted scenery "astonishing".[34] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it the "most astonishing" entry at the Tournée, praised the tension it creates and said it successfully expresses a fear that "life will eat you alive".[28] Several reviews from the 1970s and 1980s complimented the technical achievement in how Harpya integrates animation and live action.[35] John Halas described it as the director's most unique film due to its approach to both technique and storytelling.[36] Colpart wrote that it avoids becoming a technical demonstration while pushing the limits of the medium. According to Colpart, Servais is one of few people in animation who constantly questions, replaces or complicates his techniques, and in Harpya he has turned disparate elements into one fascinating whole.[33]

The film critic Daniel Walber wrote about Harpya for IndieWire in 2011 and MTV.com in 2013, praising it as one of the best short films from the history of the Cannes Film Festival. He highlighted the film's atmosphere, its resistance to interpretation and the character design for the harpy, describing the film as "haunting, a bit deranged, and entirely unforgettable".[37] In 2017, David Cairns of Mubi's Notebook said the story in Harpya is reminiscent of "Jenifer", a 2005 episode directed by Dario Argento for the television series Masters of Horror. He wrote that although Harpya can be viewed as a misogynist fable, it does not strike him as offensive because it remains open to interpretation, uses dark humour and conveys a sense of confidence.[38]

Accolades[]

An open box with a prize statuette consisting of a golden palm leaf
The 1979 Palme d'Or for Best Short Film

Harpya won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival.[39] At the Annecy festival, an international group of film critics voted Harpya as one of the twelve best animated films ever made. Servais described it as being awarded twice, first by the festival jury in Cannes and then by the critics.[40] Harpya received the 1980 Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Short Film from the Catalan branch of Radio Nacional de España.[41] It finished on 22nd place in the Olympiad of Animation, a poll to determine the greatest animated films of all time, organised by ASIFA-Hollywood and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Olympic Arts Festival in 1984.[42] In 2006, Harpya was voted the 14th best animated film of all time by an international jury of 30 animation experts.[43] It was voted as one of the ten best animated films of the last century in a poll organised by the Etiuda&Anima International Film Festival in 2010 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Animated Film Association.[44]

Legacy[]

The positive reception of Harpya and its Palme d'Or win gave Servais international renown and prompted more film festivals to invite him to their competition juries. Several film schools invited him to teach courses at their animation departments.[45] Although Servais did not reuse the animation technique from Harpya, the response to the film made him continue to combine animation and live action, notably in Taxandria from 1994, his only feature film.[46] He describes the technique from Harpya as the precursor to a quicker process he developed soon afterwards and patented as  [fr]. He intended to use servaisgraphy in Taxandria but producers and financiers opted for a more conventional combination of live action and animated special effects. The process was eventually used in the 1998 short film  [fr].[47] Moins describes Harpya as a transitional film, because it points out the direction Servais would take in his later works but is based on gag humour like his early films.[9] It was selected for the Cannes Classics section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival as one of seven films in a programme about the history of short films at the festival.[48]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ There is no dialogue in the film, but the protagonist's parrot calls out the name Oscar. Some published material refers to the man under that name.[3]
  2. ^ The name is a reference to the novel series Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.[2]

References[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b LaCinetek.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mu.ZEE, p. 22.
  3. ^ Poorter 1980, p. 134; Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 265.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Bottini 2016, p. 184.
  5. ^ Bottini 2016, p. 183.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Poorter 1980, p. 135.
  7. ^ Poorter 1980, p. 135; Vlaeminckx 2006.
  8. ^ Bottini 2016, p. 184; Vlaeminckx 2000.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Vlaeminckx 2000.
  10. ^ Bottini 2016, p. 182.
  11. ^ Poorter 1985, p. 725.
  12. ^ March 2014, pp. 214–215.
  13. ^ British Film Institute.
  14. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 11.
  15. ^ Gajan 2000, p. 38.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 122.
  17. ^ Servais 2006, p. 25; Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 266.
  18. ^ Mu.ZEE, pp. 22–23.
  19. ^ Servais 2006, p. 25.
  20. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 117.
  21. ^ Bottini 2016, p. 184; Poorter 1980, p. 135.
  22. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, pp. 103–104.
  23. ^ Gajan 2000, p. 37.
  24. ^ AlloCiné.
  25. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 132.
  26. ^ Hill 1979, p. 229; Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 123.
  27. ^ Colpart 1980, pp. 47–48.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b Arnold 1981.
  29. ^ Teninge 1999.
  30. ^ Vlaeminckx 2006.
  31. ^ De Standaard 2004; Goffaux 2019.
  32. ^ Hill 1979, p. 229.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b Colpart 1980, p. 48.
  34. ^ Siclier 1980, p. 11.
  35. ^ Colpart 1980, p. 48; Halas 1987, p. 85; Hill 1979, p. 229; Poorter 1980, p. 135; Siclier 1980, p. 11.
  36. ^ Halas 1987, p. 85.
  37. ^ Walber 2011; Walber 2013.
  38. ^ Cairns 2017.
  39. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 22.
  40. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 123.
  41. ^ La Vanguardia 1980, p. 57.
  42. ^ Deneroff 1996.
  43. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 23.
  44. ^ Belga 2010.
  45. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 126.
  46. ^ Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, pp. 122–123.
  47. ^ Servais 2006, p. 25; Swinnen & Deneulin 2008, p. 126.
  48. ^ Warner 2017.

Sources[]

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  • Belga (23 November 2010). "Belgische kortfilm bij 10 beste animatiefilms van vorige eeuw" [Belgian short film among the 10 best animated films of the last century]. De Morgen (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  • Bottini, Cinzia (2016). "Raoul Servais". In Bendazzi, Giannalberto (ed.). Animation: A World History: Volume II: The Birth of a Style – The Three Markets. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-138-85481-9.
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  • Deneroff, Harvey (July 1996). "The Olympiad of Animation: An Interview With Fini Littlejohn". Animation World Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
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  • Servais, Raoul (2006). "De Harpya et de la servaisgraphie" [On Harpya and on servaisgraphy]. In Jean, Marcel (ed.). Quand le cinéma d'animation rencontre le vivant [When the animated cinema meets the living]. Cinéma (in French). Annecy and Montreal: Les 400 coups. ISBN 978-2-89540-305-0.
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  • "Entrega de los XXIV Premios 'Sant Jordi' de cine" [Announcement of the 24th 'Sant Jordi' Awards for cinema]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 24 April 1980. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
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