High Swiss Risk

“Cyclopèdes”, Mathieu Epiney, CH 2014, 4’38“

At the beginning of the twentieth century, film-making and cycling were still a completely different kind of adventure. With its sub-titles and pianola music, ‘Cyclopèdes’ references the aesthetic of early films, and shows how a race might have looked at that time: full of comical but also dangerous incidents.

Jury laudation: ”We are glad to award a film that shows human beings thrown into a helpless situation, with a great sense of absurdity and a constant flow of perfectly timed, comical moments at an exhilarating pace. We like the outstanding sound with voices turned into grotesque grunting, and the wonderful, bold use of the rotoscopy technique, which captures spontaneous gestures and movements, adding a very human touch to the slapstick humour. We cannot remember rotoscopy being so contributing and funny! ”