Anthony Hodgson: Combination skin (1996)Watch it at: http://tinyurl.com/bsoq47 [Last checked activity 30/01/09]
Anthony Hodgson was born in York, England, where he lived for the first 20 years of his life.
After completing his education in York, Hodgson made a permanent move to London where he scored a place at Harrow Campus University Of Westminster (!!!!!) to complete a BA Hons in Animation (AGAIN...!!!!!)
He then went on to achieve a Master's Degree at Royal College of Art, where he made his first big-hit film, Hillary.
Hodgson worked as resident animator at the Museum of The Moving Image before being commissioned by Channel 4 to make Combination Skin.
Today Hodgson lives in America, with [as he was at pains ot note on his website] his wife and four cats, where he works as character animator for films as big as Antz, Shrek, and Shrek II.
*WARNING: THIS TEXT CONTAINS SPOILERS*
"How's school? Are you still being bullied? I hated School... -except English with Mr.Banks"
'Combination Skin' is a five minute short stop-motion animation commissioned by Channel 4
Set in a grim reptile house, [in what one can only assume is part of a desolate badly kept zoo somewhere in England], we watch a mother and estranged son fail to converse.
The pace and tension are set by placing just two characters in a deserted vivarium compound, pre-empted by an awkward silence. This is visualised by a character point of view watching a mucus domestica (housefly) try to escape the confinements of a terrarium in vane.
-Perhaps this is supposed the be the child's P.O.V and symbolic of his desperation to escape the oncoming conversation with his estranged mother; -this could be backed up by the chameleon eating the fly just as the mother begins to speak.
This immediately suggests the awkwardness of the situation and an air of boredom because our character is staring at an obscure placing within the confines of the shot.
As one tends to do, one immediately relates the title of the piece to the action as we realize it is set in a reptile house; however as the piece climaxes we realize it was not an autobiographical title.
As with many of Hodgson's films, Combination Skin begins in a semi-melodic broken silence [watching the fly] which is heavily interrupted after the first few moments with a constant and rambling narration there-in-after.
Watching the Mother converse instantly creates an air of awkwardness, suggesting that conversely she is a week-end mother and is not overly well in-touch with her son.
We witness a painful rambling dialogue, which is seemingly dis-jointed and a desperate struggle to make any form of conversation; until she stirs up a painful memory:
The dialogue culminates in the mother expressing a very personal feeling of guilt and horror at her own actions -which are placed a long time in the past.
This also pulls together the whole story she tells and makes the structure of the narrative apparent, we can trace back every memory-jog and turning point of her one-sided conversation making sense of the whole speech.
The estranged son occasionally replies with a nod, or monosyllabic retort, and at one point we see the camera act for him:
As the mother continues to ramble we see the Son's P.O.V shot with the camera moving as if he shaking his head; this is an impressive move on the director's part because it engages the audience in the dialogue -we don't know what she's talking about either.
The ending is rather touching: after the mother has revealed a deep grief she falls silent. The son appears to recognise this and replies "It smells in here" in an almost beautiful child-like way of protecting his mother by changing the subject. She then ties the narrative up by stating she would like to "go to the toilet now" most likely for a cigarette!
Overall this is one of those films that have stuck in my head for years, and a sick example of real social stayre.
The deeply personal narrative and display of emotion is stomach wrenching, and we can only hope the little boy is not symbolic of the artist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
INTERNET
Author: Anthony Hodgson
Additional Information: Artist's Official Website
Date: UNKNOWN
Date Link was lats proved active: 30/1/09
URL: http://www.mothkettle.com/
Author: Theo Robertson
Date: UNKNOWN
Date Link was last proved active: 30/1/09
URL: http://www.imdb.com/ (Search Criteria -Anthony Hodgston)
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