You should respect the classics for what they are, and I reckon you should give an equal amount of attention to those that can reinvigorate the same. This is what Marcel Schindler’s stop motion film “The Old Man and the Sea” does to the novel by Hemingway, same title.
Marcel’s version clocks in at four minutes and tells the story of an old fisherman who sails far out into the gulf to fish for marlin. In case you’re not read up on your Hemingway, I’m not going to give the rest away. But rest assured, the story and the style of animation work very well together. I’m not even sure I’d call it ‘stop motion’, it’s more akin to live drawing. The camera shoots Marcel’s sheets of paper from above as he draws the story sheet after sheet. An impressive feat in itself, as there are very few cuts in the film, most of the editing is just zooms and speed shifts. Watch it now and then you can (just like me) pretend to know everything about Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”.
Marcel Schindler is a photographer and visual communicator from Germany. If your German is better than mine, than you can check out more of his stuff over at marcelschindler.de
