The Oscar-winning director of ‘Harvie Krumpet’ discusses his new, award-winning, decidedly not-for-kids stop-motion feature, including the use of sophisticated magnetic puppets, being forced to play board games as a kid, and how personal lubricant makes the best tears because it can go all day and not evaporate.
On the red carpet at this year’s SCAD Savannah Film Festival (SAVFF), Adam Elliot sauntered out with a brown-haired, big-eyed beauty on his arm.Or, rather, in the palm of his hand.
The stop-motion character model of Grace Pudel, the star of Elliot’s latest animated feature, , joined the Oscar-winning indie filmmaker in the spotlight.
Elliot was quick to share with AWN all the intricate attributes that make up Grace.He pulled off her magnet arms, lifted her detachable head and rolled side to side her magnetized eyes.“She’s a very complicated, sophisticated puppet,” shared Elliot.
“She’s probably worth about $10,000 in the time it took to make her.And we had 200 of these characters in the film.” 200 characters, 200 sets and 5,000 snail pieces make up the film, which had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June, was released in Australia by Madman Entertainment and in select U.S.theaters in October and is set for a wider U.S.
release this month.The stop-motion animation was the only R-rated animated film that screened at SAVFF and is one of only a handful of animated features in the industry to carry that rating. “I get emails from angry parents all the time telling me, ‘Your films are not for children!’ and I say, ‘Of course they’re not! Why are you taking your children to my R-rated film?’” says Elliot.“I mean, we have an orgy in the story, swingers, alcoholics and child abuse.” The Australian animated tragicomedy from IFC Films, written, produced and directed by Elliot, stars the voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Magda Szubanski, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Paul Capsis, Nick Cave, and Jacki Weaver.
The film's plot is loosely inspired by Elliot's own life and follows the trials and tribulations in the life of lonely misfit Grace Pudel, from childhood to adulthood.The story begins by introducing Grace, her twin brother Gilbert, and their paraplegic alcoholic father Percy.When Percy dies, Grace and Gilbert are separated and begin their own coming-of-age odysseys.
There are heartfelt moments along the way, mixed in with electroshock punishments, fetish-filled scrapbooks, nudist colonies and, well, that should paint a clear enough picture.If not, here’s the trailer: Like Elliot said, it’s not for children. “I’ve been saying this for 28 years, but animation is not a genre,” notes Elliot.“It’s a medium.
There’s room for all types of animation.I mean, the reason I even became an animator is because you get to play God.You’re not restricted by anything.
Characters can look however we want them to look, and we get to be megalomaniacs and control freaks.” Elliot holds up Grace.“If she gives a bad performance, I roll her up in a ball and start again.” And, despite all the sexual topics tackled in the film, Elliot insists that their team’s use of sexual lubricant for character tears is not meant as an innuendo.Though, he adds, “I suppose it could be.” “It’s great stuff because it doesn’t evaporate,” Elliot explains of the lubricant.
“If you film a tear coming down the face, which we drag down with a toothpick, it’ll stay there for a day without drying up.If we put it all in there, in the eyes, and we take that toothpick and wiggle it around, it looks like the tears are shimmering.” The dark comedy-driven animator first became fascinated with the medium of stop-motion when he saw the 1988 film by Jan Švankmajer.“We have a public broadcasting commission in Australia, and it shows all these eastern European films,” Elliot says.
“And one day, when I was young, at three o'clock in the afternoon, this film called came on and I watched Jan’s version of in stop-motion.I was mesmerized.It was dark.
It was disturbing.And I thought, ‘I want to do that.’” For many years prior to , Elliot created a series of stop-motion shorts, all highly personal stories about memories of his own childhood, incorporating his hereditary physiological tremor into the uneven visual aesthetic of his character models.His 2003 short, , took home Oscar gold.
His 2009 feature, , took top prizes at Annecy and Ottawa.Here are links to some of his films: Trailer for : https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=p1W_mpSydYI (free with ads): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A603iqFqOuQ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruLmF0pBBBs : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Q-kSyTXYE&t=114s For Elliot, the provocative but sincere was a long time coming.“And I think it’s a great year this year for animation because the projects are so diverse,” he says.
“We’ve got wonderful films like and the documentary on Pharrell Williams done in Lego.And then on the other end we have and and .You’ve got the high end, the middle and the low budget.
It’s very eclectic this year.” With preliminary Oscars voting beginning next month, Elliot says he’s interested to see how the awards season plays out.But despite being an Academy Award winner himself, Elliot says he’s less interested in gaining accolades than he is in building connections and community among like-minded creatives. “When I was a little kid, my brother forced me to play board games and would bash me up if I let him win,” recalls Elliot.“I’m not a competitive person by nature, which is why one of my favorite film festivals – besides this one, SCAD Savannah – is Telluride Film Festival because it’s non-competitive.
You don’t worry about who's going to win or not going to win.You just go and celebrate cinema.” Before bidding farewell, Elliot left one more sentiment for SCAD students.“We are starved for female stop-motion animators in Australia,” he said.
“So please come visit us.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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