Cheatin'

Ever since his first short film “Lucas the Ear of Corn” in 1977, it’s difficult to imagine the independent animation film scene without Bill Plympton. From that time on the films by the American animator have been honoured with awards at animation film festivals around the world. Plympton sees his art as the antipode to mainstream commercial film production, affording him a great deal of freedom both thematically and formally. His films are classic auteur works, with every hand-drawn sequence bearing Plimpton’s uniquely personal expression. Formally, Plympton’s style features overblown distortions: his figures are expressive caricatures, his rooms have uncanny escapes and exaggerated perspectives. But the excess is not restricted to his depictions alone – his stories are also suffused with it. In “Cheatin’ “ Ella and Jack meet and fall head over heels in love. But Ella is lured into a trap, and Jack receives photos of her with other – reputed – lovers. The boundless passion now turns into a ruthless fit of jealousy, which is exorbitantly celebrated, both visually and narratively: Jack is practically torn apart with despair, he fights back by cheating on Ella thousands of times, and she fights no less desperately to win back her hero. Plympton does not spare with emotional superlatives in “Cheatin’”, but instead visibly enjoys the grotesque and all forms of exaggeration. The transformations, well known from other Plympton films, apply here to the varying emotional states in which his characters lapse, shaping both their behaviour and form. (as)