Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Chelovek v ramke" or "Man in the Frame" is a 10-minute animated short film from 1966, so it has its 50th anniversary this year. The writer and director is Fyodor Khitruk and he is among the Soviet Union's most known filmmakers from back in the day. This one here is among his more known works, but I must say it looks pretty different compared to other films from that area during that era. It's a take on bureaucracy and logically with this topic, there are no animals in here. There are many people though, well really only their heads. There were 2 or 3 funny moments, like the clapping sequence, but as a whole, it was not really an entertaining watch. Animation level was accurate for the 1960s. I personally would say this is nowhere near the best from what I have seen on Soviet Films from between the 1940s to 1970s. I give it a thumbs-down.
ccthemovieman-1
I have to give this points for originality, and perhaps another point simply for "guts," but otherwise it mostly a boring 10 minutes. In a nutshell, this 1966 Russian film makes a statement about bureaucrats. It actually makes fun of them which was not an easy thing to do in Russia during this time. Director Fyodor Khitruk had guts to make this. The story is told through a man who seen in a picture frame. There are about a half-dozen "chapters" about life in the business world, or in the office of a big business and we see how this man reacts to different situations. The artwork is interesting, more than the story. The man does things inside the frame, but often reaches out to do other tasks, which include leery at a busty secretary, kissing up to a big boss....the normal stuff that's taken for granted in the Western World but, I assume, rarely shown in Russia in the mid '60s. It does go to show you that people are people, wherever you do, whatever the culture. You can see similar actions in an office in Japan, U.S., Mexico, Australia, wherever. The animation is so original that you might be fascinated with it, but I would guess most audiences today might get bored after about halfway through.
AD
