After releasing “Rain” (1998), “The Cathedral” (2002), “Undo” (2002) and “Fallen Art” (2004), Polish art animator Tomek Baginski, Academy Award nominated in 2002, presents his new short-animation-movie “The Kinematograph”, adaptation of a comic with the same title created with a pen and crayon by Mateusz Skutnik and included in the album “Rewolucje: Monochrom”.
The projects was also presented at the 66th Venice Internaional Film Festival 2009.
It all started with a journalist, Krysztof Lipka-Chudzik, who introduced the album to Baginski’s attention, who turned the comic from Skutnik’s art into a melancholy-pointing movie.

“I had just finished “Fallen Art” when I got hold of Mateusz’s comics. Before I had a look at them, they had been lying around for about two weeks. Finally, I took them with me on two-day premarital classes where I could not have either a computer or a mobile. Maybe because of peace and silence there this story made a huge impression on me. “The Kinematograph” was almost a ready-made script for a short film. It had a great plot, an interesting beginning and a conclusion. It could appeal to a bigger audience which I also try to reach” –  says Tomek Bagiński.

The story tells about Francis who is an inventor. His invention is supposed to change the world. He forgot about one thing: dreams always cost too much. He is focused only on himself and his work and realizes the gravity of the situation only when it is too late.


Jakub Jabłoński‘s appearance brought new life to the project. He designed the characters which matched the film language and format perfectly. The world that he proposed, even though it referred to Mateusz Skutnik’s art, took on a character of a colourful fable where warmth was met by melancholy.
“We did not want the aesthetics to bring the viewer down, but to make the sad message of the story lighter. Everything was supposed to resemble a fairy-tale but at the same time not to be cartoonish or Hollywood-like. We wanted it to be associated with a puppet film. I designed the characters. The idea was that the background would refer to illustrations in a children’s book” – explains Jakub Jabłoński.

The film takes place at the end of the 19^th century, just a moment before the Lumiere brothers’ invention. You can recognize the Victorian period and even though the action supposedly takes place in England, the setting can be associated with many other places.
“I did not want to copy the era but merely refer to it, so that it was clear. The stylization, some kind of lightness, fairy-tale atmosphere, a new style were more important. We wanted to create something nice and interesting, something that does not pretend to be something else” – stresses Jabłoński.

TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASqf1r88D0
MORE INFO: http://www.thekinematograph.com/en/

by Ilaria Rebecchi