Visit nordvpn.com/atrocityguide and use the promo code “atrocityguide” to get a free four months added to your 2-year plan. Merch: atrocityguide.com Twitter: twitter.com/AtrocityGuide Patreon: www.patreon.com/atrocityguide Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/AtrocityGuide/ Original music by Ryan Probert: ruclips.net/p/PL5a3UXdh_ybYlTpSBM6olV5aSaNoHFwQl
@@dustinirwin1 You are a fool to think he disrespects them. Men are made in part with madness, and those that embrace that madness may do incredible things.
@@dustinirwin1 they are intentionally making themselves miserable. He even said he hates living in Russia but good art can’t be made when you are comfortable. They’ve Sabotaged their lives
@@dustinirwin1 "they were destroying each other. fran tried to hang herself twice. yuri was banging his head against the wall" sure sounds like they're having a fun time and enjoying the simplicity of life
“Francheska is a mystery to me. The more I get to know her, the less I know.” This might sound weird but I get the vibe from that quote that he really, really loves her. The way he wants to work without a script, the way he jokes about not knowing what a film is about until it’s done, I think nothing could ever appeal to him more than a person who he can never quite figure out.
I don't trust an artist who tells me they already know what they're gonna do, it means they have a limited source of ideas. You don't have one idea that you want to exploit, you don't have several ideas, either. You have an infinity of ideas. All along the work, new ideas come up, old ideas go down, which may go back up again. It's the work that guides you through which idea you can use. There is no way to know what you're actually gonna make, before it's finished.
the way they captured the pure bliss on the man's face as he tucks himself into his new overcoat...the gleam in his eyes, the blush in his cheeks, like a child waiting for Santa...it really brought tears to my eyes. And it makes knowing the end of the story even more painful. But that's art. And that's just beautiful. I wish they wouldn't suffer while making their movie but I can at least thank them for having done so, even if only through a comment they'll likely never see (and in my heart.)
I wish Crimean Tatars wouldn't suffer when their homes were taken away and relatives "disappeared" by russian invaders, but the Norstein said he "categorically supports" the occupation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine so I WISH he would actually suffer instead of being a talentless fool westerners are so fascinated with because "russia mysterious".
thank you for this comment it brought me a lot of emotion, the small details really are everything and time is the villain here, it's all so complicated
Their animation style is simply spellbinding. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Breathtaking, boundary-pushing artwork. Sincerely hope there is eventually a release of The Overcoat, in some sort of fashion.
There will be, I just hope it's left "as created", not "finished", "reimagined" or "improved". Hell. it could be presented with this video as preface. So that the impact of the work, however much actually gets finished, will be better understood. Because by now, this work is only peripherally related to, or constrained by, the source story "The Overcoat".
@@Trollificusv2 Makes you appreciate the 4 or 5 different versions you can find of the movie Bladerunner, or the 3 version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Some Dvds release different cuts of things as either separate units for purchase, on the same disk at the start menu, or in the special features. So, hopefully they will see a release of previous cuts of their film and an introduction to their learned new technique that made them go back and change it all over again.
We finally got to see Salvador Dali's _Destino,_ so I have hope we'll see this, too. Even if they never finish, someone will take charge and make sure it's released to the public.
I remember back when I was super into Soviet animation ~15 years ago. After watching Skazka Skazok and Hedgehog in the Fog, I was so pumped to learn that Norstein and Yarbusova were adapting one of my favorite short stories, The Overcoat, into a feature-length film. "They've already been working on it for twenty years!" I thought. "Surely it will be ready soon!" ... The next time I thought about it was when I saw the title of this video, and knew exactly which film it would be about.
Have you watched the "Treasure Island"? The original subbed version (can be seen on RUclips), not the export one, which is heavily downgraded. It's not as "artsy", more on a fun side, but the animation is just gorgeous.
@@InsidiousOne Tresure Island is by Kyivnaukfilm, the same Ukrainian studio did a whole series of Cossacks cartoons. They were really good! If you want to help preserving, lobby it! We were urging Criterion to register some of Ukrainian cinema from the era from Dovzhenko studio, like Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, but they absolutely refuse to acknowledge us or answer to comments. Odesa movie studio was just hit with Iranian drone attack yesterday. Several museums bombed, one flooded, others robbed by russians. Preservation of Ukrainian cultural legacy is very important!
This almost moved me to tears. As an artist, the desire and will to pour yourself into your work really hit home. The never ending battle with perfection vs completion. To you, the work is never finished because there's always more you can do. Letting go is the hardest part.
It’s so hard to just commit, draw the line and say “done”. And then no one seems to know the weight of the failures, the amount of work put in just to get one thing right. A million to one, and it seems that hardly anyone even wants to notice the one.
i definitely shed a few watching this, it is soo sad what they have been put through. Let them create their hearts desire, I will never understand censorship. Its soo sad.
Here, in Bulgaria, as we were in the Eastern block, every person over 35 remembers Hedgehog and the fog as it was shone as one of the greatest examples of russion genius recurringly on the national television . To this day from time to time it's shown on the program "Good night, kids" (:
wait, you guys have “goodnight, kids” too?? i’m from russia, i never thought this program existed anywhere else! makes sense given our history together, but still, so cool to find out. i wonder if we have the same characters on the show too!
Yeah things tend to get shared when one country keeps invading the others, I'm sure in 10 or 20 years people will be saying the same thing in Ukraine.. "oh isn't that interesting, we share the same TV shows as Russia, what luck"
Because you can sense there’s mental illness going on here. Folie a deux often ends in murder suicide. In their case the self destruction of their work.
At some point he says that when he makes a discovery or finds something in the process of making the film, he also goes backwards modifing the parts that he has already done to adapt them to the new way found. So somehow he is destroying the film already while making it.
The plight of an artist is so rarely understood by anyone other than themselves. Self sabotage and self criticism to overcome often keep many great pieces from ever coming to light. Others try to change and some offer anything to get these works of art done that completely obscures what the artist is really about. Edit: Also….Amazing video btw. This is the exact reason I’m subscribed to see this in-depth description of something I’ve never even heard of. Thank you
@@justcommenting4981 nah its more that they get so focused on details, and once perfection sets in it can easily overturn their lives. and so many artists have ended up in that trap. hell even the video game industry experiences this. one of the most famous ones is duke nukem forever which was plagued with this, because the original creator basically scrapped the game and started all over again multiple times. it all ended when they ran out of money and someone else bought the rights to the ip
My literature class studied _The Overcoat_ back in my school days and finding out that there’s a unique animated film about it in the works makes me excited for something that probably won’t ever release.
Yeah they're in their 80s & probably not even halfway done. Unfortunately the chances are increasingly slim that it'll ever release. Especially because theyre old which will make the more eccentric issues worse
@@frankmarano1118 One can hope the half produced film is auctioned off to some collector in the future who shows it to the world. I imagine, if anyone decides to pick up where this couple left off, it would likely be a slap in the face to the couple and their work to do the remaining part(s) at a pace any faster than they did. That being said, l wouldn't put it past future humans to use the Blender of the time and finish it themselves over the course of a Red Bull just as a quick fan-fiction side project.
I would be shocked if Criterion or Kino or some other art film restoration and distribution company didn't release a cut of the film, no matter how unfinished, after these two die. Some of the greatest artworks in history were never truly "finished". _The Trial_ by Franz Kafka. Mozart's _Requiem._ The poems of Hoelderlin and Mallarme's _Tomb for Anatole._ In animation, _The Thief and the Cobbler_ and _The King and the Mockingbird_ are two that have developed devoted followings in the years since their noncompletion. We can only hope _The Overcoat_ will join this canon of fragments.
I SO MUCH want to see “ The OverCoat “ !! They should release what they have , like a 1st half with “ To Be Continued / More To Come “ and then still release thee full version if we get that opportunity ever @ least they can get rich from some great art and not have any funding issues if they even just drop 1st half. Anyone who knows anything about this work of art , as well as their plight , we will all wary to see it. I think Most of Us would as well like to own even a portion of this Masterpiece still in progress. They could @ least get rid of any financial stress and be able to continue as they wish If they produce & publish just a portion of what they have. I mean 40 Years …. Almost every Human on earth will be intrigued , especially if it’s advertised right. They’ll make a lot of $ while still stay true to their craft & their pure artistic selves.
Their animation is truly breathtaking in it's beauty, haunting dreaminess and meticulous obsession. Hopefully The Overcoat will get finished within their lifetime.
To be honest the footage made of the overcoat sucks. I get it's taken years and years but it's all so bloody dark you can't see a thing. A lack of colour, lack of a script and lack of any decent lighting make it look shit
And I thought Thief and the Cobbler had a troubled production. Never heard of this film before or most of the topics you cover. That's the main reason I look forward to your videos!
Just wanted to say that this channel is a gem. A lot of others in this area of RUclips circulate the same stale content, but you always manage to find really fascinating, obscure stories that actually have enough depth to justify a 30-60 minute video.
@@gandhitheholeresizer8329 For sure but I just meant I agree with the sentiment of how she manages to find topics we haven’t heard much about. It’s cool.
Other than this and the Down the Rabbit Hole series, I don't know of anything else of such quality.. But I'm looking if anyone has channel suggestions!
The Overcoat is my favorite short story I read for my literature classes in school. I’ve reread it and sometimes just think of parts of the story when I’m reminded of it. Knowing this much artistic passion exists towards the story makes me pray a large portion of the film can be completed so that I can sit on my couch on a cold February Saturday morning all depressed yet inspired and in awe of the human condition
I feel like some one out there will still edit thier work and make it better. Maybe improve the films fluidity or resolution. What ever it is that they are trying to achieve will be monumental
@@abstract0407 Sometimes more fluidity doesn’t make the film better, just different. Animation is tricky, what some consider better could be detracting from the creators vision. So any enhancements have to be carefully thought out if the creators are no longer with us.
"The only things Yuri is afraid of, is the things that might really help him." A lot of creative people are this way, and I've let myself succumb to this at certain points in my life. Despair becomes a lifestyle. Self-Sabotage is comfortable and familiar; success is strange and terrifying. There's also an aspect of "control" at play. If I were to guess, I imagine Yuri believes that any outside help he accepts compromises the integrity of his work. The work that is really the only thing in his life he probably has ever had total control over.
this description of me is both comforting and haunting as i imagine what could have been while ignoring what is. a great life that hates himself for not having a great life
@@IsoYear I call it the "Disney Effect". You give a child a simple, repeating pattern to "success", or "happily ever after". The child grows, and realizes the actual complexities of life and human relationships, and it starts this sort of dissonance between reality and expectation that we can never seem to reconcile.
The quality of production for these videos is insane. The research required, the nuance of your coverage...it's astonishing and wonderful to experience.
The Overcoat was one of those stories I read in Literature class that stuck with me. I was really shocked that was the story they're adapting, it makes it especially poetic.
You mentioned The King and the Mockingbird, and I love how the main guy behind that was like “Fuck it, we’re finishing it no matter what” so the end product has a clear distinction between the animation that was done in the late 40’s versus the animation that was done in the late 70’s but at least they got it done. I haven’t seen it yet because it’s pretty hard to find but I do know that the music for the finished movie fuckin SLAPS
I know this doesn’t help much now, but the director’s cut was streaming on Mubi last Christmas. If I were you, I’d keep an eye on that and possibly the Criterion Channel, as I think they overlap in programming a bit.
As a traditional animator who refuses to give up her paper and pencils to work on a computer, I found this fascinating. I know little of their work, but I'm sure going to delve deeper into it now.
I got into the biz right when Flash took over. I learned to animate on paper and have always missed that tactile feeling and superior look it achieves.
@@Captain_MonsterFart I hear ya. It's just not the same. I was able to work using paper and pencils for three years, then everything switched to Flash. I moved to L.A. and tried for work but everything was switching to 3D computer animation. I moved back East and worked on a show in Flash for two months then quit because I hated it so much. I haven't worked in animation since. Studios like Aardman and LAIKA have tried switching to 3D computer animation, then moved back to real materials like clay and plasicine because it's just not the same result any other way.
_"As a traditional animator who refuses to give up her paper and pencils ..., I found this fascinating"_ - meet Julian Antoniszczak (aka Julian Antonisz), who made his films "non-camera", by drawing individual stills by hand directly on a film. His best known piece is "Jak działa jamniczek" (How a Little Dachshund works"), made in 1971 kinda nonsensical (just like all his works) animated movie, or even just surreal - and narrated (for even more grotesque effect) by some old country lady, a simple(ton) woman who's read the narrative from a written script without understanding much of it - and at any rate many of those words/ terms are child-prattle like, "invented" and quite nonsensical yet amusing. So, without further ado, here: ruclips.net/video/r16GL3N4PdM/видео.html Should you be interested I may attempt, or "try my best" to translate the "story" but getting it accurately translated is going to be a "mission nigh impossible"... ;-)
This breaks my heart as a fellow artist, I especially struggle with perfectionism for details people will never notice and end results that barely differ. I'm finally getting past that, but it's been nearly a decade of this mindset that (at least for myself) staggered my growth more than refined it. Maybe it brings them purpose and identity, but its a heavy burden to bear. edit: I finally updated my avatar to my own art. Previous icon was "The Stalk" from the comic book "Saga".
My uncle has been writing a history book for nearly 30 years. Part of me thinks he doesn't want to stop as be wont know what to do with himself. Its became the only life he knows. I get the feeling the two discussed are in a similar mindset.
this is just a hot take, but you could say they've become incredibly self-indulgent. deadlines help focus action. without any real time constraints, they've fallen victim to parkinson's law, where the work expands to fill the time allotted. this could be their escape from all the trauma they likely experienced growing up in soviet russia
@@Ten_Thousand_Locusts It's character from the comic book series 'Saga'. The comic has been ongoing since 2012, there are 54 issues as of now, about 9 volumes and more coming in January 2022. It's a bit of a passion project from the creator, with only 2 people working on it. I'd recommend the series to anyone looking into reading comic books
I hope that an untarnished version of whatever the final state of the film ends up being sees a release, I remember being transfixed by the theif and the cobbler simply by nature of the complex and mesmirizing detail and the surreal nature of the characters and movements but the aspects that were clearly just inserted by those without the vision detracted greatly from it. the footage I see of the overcoat is profoundly moving in a manner that I don't think I have felt before and I would hate to see it spoiled by any similar meddling.
I love your videos on unique and misunderstood artists! I want to suggest a video about Vivian Maier. She was a photographer who wasn’t discovered until after her death because she never showed the photos to anyone and was a recluse. It’s a fascinating story!
Norstein short films mentioned: Heron and the Crane Hedgehog in the Fog Tale of Tales Others Hungarian: the Tragedy of Man, dir. Marcell Jankovics English: The thief and the cobbler -- dir Richard Williams The King and the Mockingbird - dir Paul Grimault Hoffmaniada - dir. Stanislav Sokolov (Let me know if I missed any! I want to see them all.)
Man after watching this, the visual style of Darkwood makes so much sense now. The game’s visual directors probably watched these cartoons when they were children and it was burn into their memories.
I thought the same thing immediately. The very unique art style of Darkwood makes a lot more sense when you see the Soviet animation style of the 20th century.
@@Problematist or from the dude's perspective... "I Hanged Myself After Getting Seduced by my Wife's Sister and Now I'm the Demon Lord's Reincarnation in Another World!?"
@@sirlimen333 numerous studios/creatives offered to fund production - and they said no. Talk about punching a gift horse in the mouth. Also If a piece of art is destroying your relationships; it’s probably worth reconsidering how you make it.
I noticed a trend in a couple of the topics you covered. A lot of the time it seems like the main force delaying production is pure perfectionism. That's kinda terrifying.
I hope this labour of love get's finished; I admire the intense dedication of it's creators. Francheska's art is stunningly beautiful, and I think I understand Yuri's pride and stubbornness.
This reminds me of the The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke a painting by Richard Dadd, who worked on it for 9 years whilst he was held at the Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital. He had murdered his father. He only stopped working on the painting after he was transferred to another mental institution where he later died. The painting references old English folklore and Shakespeare, and has a semi 3D effect due to the amount of paint that Dadd applied to canvas over the years.
"The Overcoat" does seem to have commonalities with such one-of-a-kind things, or Henry Dargers 15,000 page opus. Their uniqueness falls outside art theory. Indeed, it falls outside the judgement of "normal" artists and critics altogether. And I LOVE that sort of stuff!!
I find the fact that Yuri and his wife are continuing to work on the movie even though they have essentially given up on the idea of finishing it to be very fascinating. Do they feel an obligation to finish it? Do they find value in dedicating all their energy on a project that will never be truly completed? It all just sounds so antithetical to why most people make art and I would love to hear their reasoning and perspective.
Taking a guess, I think they'd say that the "doing of it" is the art, the final product is just a result. Like, the act of painting is the "art", not the finished piece. The playing of the music is the "art", not the recording of it. Needless to say, this cannot be a popular art school view, because it renders artistic hierarchies irrelevant.
I think making art for oneself's sake is not really antithetical to art, since theres plenty of people who draw/paint/doodle/play music for themselves and arent really interested in putting it out there, but I think it defintely seems antithetical to filmmaking
@@Trollificusv2 That's cool. I wish I could adopt that mentality, but it's too foreign. I'm a self-taught independent artist, but I only care for the final product. Everything else feels like a barrier between my idea and it's realization When I leave something I was passionate about creating unfinished, it feels like I've achieved nothing, so of course I am dissatisfied with a lot of the work I've done and that sucks
Your researching skills on this video (in my opinion) is almost as brilliant as their animation, and the engaging story telling just tops it all off. Not to mention the aesthetically pleasing linguistics (for me as non native speaker, I appreciate that). Really running out of things to say here, we'll wait for next video after you wake up again from your creative hibernation, but I can't complain because I do believe that "good things take time".
I’m figuring that’s why it’s being covered on a channel with the name Atrocity Guide. As an artist myself, I sympathize with wanting to capture as much of your vision as possible, but it can become dangerous if you don’t exercise boundaries with your work.
@@ArekusaSan I don't think I would even want to spend so much on a production, even if its my own. Id get bored and I would just want to be able to make as much shit as I can and improve gradually. Not devote my whole life for chasing perfection and getting only one piece done in my fucking lifetime.
This film isn't for you and I to consume, it's a film for them to enjoy working on. Doing something together with your soul mate is one of the best things one can do with their time. Sometimes stressful, sometimes fun, as with any meaningful relationship.
In a way, things like this remind me of the lengthy and arduous process that Kentaro Miura had undergone in creating the manga Berserk from 1989 until his untimely death this past June. The meticulous detail he invested in the artwork of every page is staggering, and even after over 30 years it still wasn't complete. Amazing accomplishments by both him and these artists, mad respect to them all🙏
I actually recently began wondering if this animation style is possibly the thing that could make a great adaptation of berserk happen. I think it would allow there to be more of a focus on making a handful of frames, and meticulously rendering them out before animating them all as a whole… honestly I think it would give Berserk the dark fairytale vibe it’s always deserved, and the fact that the last adaptation there EVER was of it before Miura died was the 2016-2017 adaptation…. Fucks with me… I really think this is possible
@@souljastation5463 He has an assistant but the artwork is 100% Miura only. I think he stated in an interview that he only lets his assistants fix mistakes and inconsistencies but that’s it.
My gawd. That animation! It's so detailed and fluid my brain insists it's done with computers and just imitating stop-motion because I can't comprehend stop-motion being that complex looking but it is.
Thank you so much for putting this together. The Norsteins have been one of my most favorite animators to admire and learn more about. There aren't many overviews on these two in English, so I greatly appreciate you creating this.
Hedgehog in the Fog is an absolutely gorgeous, stunning and unique work of art. It's so atmospheric. Knowing so much more of the story behind its creators is giving me life. What a way to showcase genius and art and how it can overtake your life, and how art is so much more than just a job or a project.
I'm a pretty big animation fan and I've heard so many stories about the same couple hundred animators. I was expecting this to do a documentary on Richard Williams and the Theif and the Cobbler. I've never heard of these two, thank you for sharing this!
Soviet animation (and early russian) is a gold mine - you should look into it. There’s a lot of great masters: Norshtein, Khitruk, Tatarsky, Atamanov, Ivanov-Vano, Kovolev, Aldashin, Cherkassky and many more. Their animation is passionate, deep, well structured and sometimes with great sense of humor.
You never miss. You always manage to find stories nobody has covered yet, and it’s so evident you’re passionate about the stories you tell. It never feels like you’re covering topics for views, you’re telling these stories because you want them told. Hats off to you, Atrocity. Each time you upload it’s a treat.
Yeah, right, that's surprising. In case the author will read this branch of comments - i can help with russian words and surnames emphasises and pronunciation in future - if needed, of course. Many content creators struggle with foreign names :) best wishes to Atrocity Guide, though.
Because why would you reference garbage tequnique that was forced to grow because of the cesspool it was crafted in? That's like praising the flowers in Cherynobyl for developing radiation resistance because they were forced to grow in an exclusion zone
I'm coming back from a therapy session, and I can recognize myself in Yuri. Perfectionism are caused by trying to prove your sufficiency, but you can always hide it like" passion or love to the artwork" but most of the times is self sabotage. Thanks God I contained myself for being a stop motion animator, I KNOWI would have end up working on a film for 50+ years completely alone , because no one would stand me.
In some ways, these two remind me of the Hungarian composer György Kurtág and his wife/collaborator Márta. György is notorious for his intense perfectionism and concentration of material; most of his pieces don't run past 10 minutes in length, some are seconds long. His magnum opus and only opera, an adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame, was premiered in 2018, some sixty years after his first seeing the play, several years after its commission, and when Kurtág was in his 90's--and Márta, who had been integral to his composition process for his entire career, died just under a year later. I hope that Yuri and Francheska have the time to see their magnum opus through. It looks shockingly, hauntingly beautiful.
Keith hearings unfinished work is finished though. In the sense that is intended imagine and symbology he wanted to capture. This... this is something else
I mean, maybe it shouldn't be about whether *we* ever get to see it. Maybe it's just fulfilling on a deep level for a husband and wife to spend their lives doing something they love doing together
I rarely rewatch RUclips videos since there's such a constant stream of new content to watch on here, but this channel is definitely an exception. This video is great, I love stories about passionate, persistent artists.
Read the title and thought this was going to be about Mad God. Both stories of stop motion passion projects in the works for decades. Hopefully I'll be able to see both films one day
Have seen mad god, you can definitely tells there’s parts they winged/changed the idea for the sake of practicality but there’s basically nothing else like it in cinema. It’s properly grotesque. Fetid, even.
Im going to go watch every single movie they made after this like how could you not its just so beautiful in a almost surreal way kinda like a fog or fever dream
Thanks for this-- I'm a huge fan of their work but only knew that production on The Overcoat had stretched on for decades, not a lot of the details and excerpts you offer here. I hope they finish it and that I can one day see it, but their work speaks for itself and they don't owe anyone anything, so if it is never completed they are still legends with a brilliant body of work.
Recently discovered this channel because of the cult documentaries as a part of discovering new bits of culture. Was pleasantly surprised to rediscover some old culture as well. It's definitely an experience watching these cartoons between the ages of 4 and 6. A lot of the more artistic American one's made me think about common tropes in cartoons and whatnot. Old Soviet stuff makes you feel everything that's behind what you're seeing, sometimes including things you thought of while mindlessly drawing the first things that came to mind and trying to turn it into something coherent, other times being scared by what is just black pencil. And it was very normal for little kids to be scared, then laugh about it in a group. It was our fun. You could feel the flow of life. The very pure force of concept. Maybe it wasn't an essay, maybe for us it was just a few words, a quick remark about what we thought and why it was interesting, with only a few sentences behind those few words. But these ideas and feelings grew and became parts of other things. While thinking about daily routine, there would always be a barely noticeable part of this old art in the feelings. That's what the Soviet Union is for us, and the point is that everyone know about everyone else knowing. This has no coherent meaning, just like the feelings I talked about. And this isn't written during a calm between surges of some kind of illness. It's called "things are so much that way, I guess you could even say that something is just like this..."
Their movies look absolutely gorgeous, I hope they're able to finish their life's work if only so that more people will be able to appreciate what they've been able to achieve despite the obstacles they've faced throughout their careers..
This is absolutely amazing, thank you Atrocity Guide. My family immigrated here as refugees from the USSR and I recognize sooo many of these animated films. To be able to hear about this entire story and history is both heart warming and shocking. I'm having my mother watch this too.
Once I read the thumbnail, I immediately thought of The King and the Mockingbird. Thank you for bringing it up, not enough people talk about that film. I still want to find an English subbed version of it available for download or purchase in some form some day, and this film will definitely be the one I hope to see next within my lifetime. In addition to their other work, of course.
Favorite release of yours, yet. Incredibly thought provoking, beautiful, and tragic. Having recently watching Bo Burnham's Inside, I've lately been fascinated w/ the creative process and how finishing a work is the scariest thing a creative can imagine, because it means that they'll be right back where they started.
can't help it but to cry by only looking at the clips you provided of these animations, even if they were just simple walking cycles, they just do something to me You can feel them in their art in a way I haven't experienced before
I am yet again left speechless. Another video that i find to be on another level compared to other RUclipsrs. Ill be impatiently waiting for the next. Keep up the incredible work Atrocity 💚
Thanks so much for this wonderful tribute. I consider Yuri Norstein one of the genius artists of the 20th century, in any discipline. And props also for highlighting the fundamental role of Francheska Yarbusova, often neglected when considering the work of her husband. These two are a treasure to humanity, and that little studio where they work should be considered a World Heritage site.
I feel like almost every artist, writer, or creator in general can relate to that feeling of devoting so much time and effort to a project that just sits there. But this scale is absolutely horrifying to think about. It really puts the year I spent redoing the intro to my comic that's just getting redone in a much better way anyway into perspective. Things like this really need to be done with a level of awareness of where you're going and exactly how you spend your time if they're going to be successful. But obviously, that's not their goal. I just can't stop thinking about how it must be to work on that film, if their (maybe just his...) philosophy is that they need to suffer to make good art
I started watching your videos about half a year ago, and you quickly became one of my favorite youtube channels, if not my absolute favorite. I work night shift and I find your content so captivating, I can lose hours on your content with it only feeling like minutes. It really helps pass time during these long work hours. Thank you for the great content.
Ah - I've loved his work ever since watching "The Hedgehog in the Fog"! I'm always thrilled to see you cover such unique personalities and their life struggles.
As a fellow artist who has spent years on a single project, I fully understand how they feel. They have been doing other projects which delays work on their primary goal, so it isn't like they are only working on just the film. Maybe we want to see what they are working on, but all great artists leave behind unfinished work. What hurts is the work they or others throw out or destroy.
In a way it could probably never live up to the amount of work they’re putting into it in terms of getting what they’d want response wise from it, so maybe it’s good they just continue to get enjoyment out of perfecting it rather than expecting any reaction to it as it’s their life’s works
This was absolute genius. I completely understand why they both are doing this and I completely agree. This is the true definition of a torture artist ..
Thank you so much for making this video, I had never heard of Yuri and Francheska's films before and I'm absolutely blown away, easily the most beautiful animation I have ever seen.
Your videos are just brilliant. So distinctive in style, editing and narration is brilliant, and such a sensitive approach to the subjects. Really might be the best channel on RUclips.
Real artists move me deeply. Their authenticity, sacrifice, & suffering gives birth to real art & awakens the divine creative forces deep within a sleeping populace that has forgotten these forces long ago. I have chills & I’m in awe of them because real artists are incredibly rare, especially in recent decades. 😭🩵
Nexpo brought me to this channel and I'm so glad. Loved every single bit of this video, your investigation and narration is amazing. Thank you for the content!! I'm subscribing for sure.
This video is absolutely amazing, Ive never heard of Yuri and Franceska and I have to say their animation style evokes a huge swell of emotions in me, just seeing what they have done of the overcoat just brings me to tears.
Richard Williams: I'm going to spend 30 years making The Thief and the Cobbler. No animator is more of a perfectionist than me. Yuri Norstein: Hold my vodka.
I'm honestly just glad they had each other all this time. Doing what you love, with the person you love... That's a dream for many people, I hope it's theirs too. That they're living the dream.
What a special, ethereal sort of....im not sad. yearning. longing. for something that will clearly never be. a labor of love so intense that nothing less than perfection will suffice. i understand. I only wish to see what manages to be completed by the time there is no more time, yeah?
Dear Atrocity Guide, I've loved quite a few of your videos so far, but this one really stands out. To me, no better documentary could be made about The Overcoat when it comes to style and presentation. What a beautiful atrocity it turned out to be. I hope you are proud of your work
RUclips needs more content like this. Segments that shed light on some of the greatest narrartives in the history of animation. In the past decade or so I've become way more facinated by the people working in animation than the cartoons they create and its a bummer you dont find more of this. Excellent vid! 10/10
Visit nordvpn.com/atrocityguide and use the promo code “atrocityguide” to get a free four months added to your 2-year plan.
Merch: atrocityguide.com
Twitter: twitter.com/AtrocityGuide
Patreon: www.patreon.com/atrocityguide
Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/AtrocityGuide/
Original music by Ryan Probert: ruclips.net/p/PL5a3UXdh_ybYlTpSBM6olV5aSaNoHFwQl
The first paragraph remind me of Nord VPN man from Incognito
That static design on the merch is badass
This video shouldn't have taken 4 months, cut em down
You’re the best youtuber!
@@flintgrain lol
I imagine a director's commentary of the film.
"Oh, yes this scene, only 30 seconds long. That's how I spent 1997."
more like 1997 - 2000
A director's commentary of this film would be a full autobiography, periods of their lives marked by frames and scenes
lol
@@Nojnojmore like the 90s and 2000s
By 2024 they must have about 50 minutes done by now. in 2004 they had 25 minutes done.
"What are you writing?"
"I don't know, I haven't received it yet"
Absolutely brilliant-
It has been a while since I’ve had chills reading something. That joke did it.
That’s what imma tell my teacher for now on
That’s just dnd
It was both funny and kind of dark too, so very Russian
What does he mean by that ?
these two artists are walking that extremely fine line between genius and madness
The more you sacrifice, the more you get. This is that principle taken to it's extreme. Same thing with James Hampton.
They’re firmly in the madness camp
@@dustinirwin1 You are a fool to think he disrespects them. Men are made in part with madness, and those that embrace that madness may do incredible things.
@@dustinirwin1 they are intentionally making themselves miserable. He even said he hates living in Russia but good art can’t be made when you are comfortable. They’ve Sabotaged their lives
@@dustinirwin1 "they were destroying each other. fran tried to hang herself twice. yuri was banging his head against the wall"
sure sounds like they're having a fun time and enjoying the simplicity of life
“Francheska is a mystery to me. The more I get to know her, the less I know.”
This might sound weird but I get the vibe from that quote that he really, really loves her. The way he wants to work without a script, the way he jokes about not knowing what a film is about until it’s done, I think nothing could ever appeal to him more than a person who he can never quite figure out.
what a nice touch
I appreciate this comment
I don't trust an artist who tells me they already know what they're gonna do, it means they have a limited source of ideas. You don't have one idea that you want to exploit, you don't have several ideas, either. You have an infinity of ideas. All along the work, new ideas come up, old ideas go down, which may go back up again. It's the work that guides you through which idea you can use. There is no way to know what you're actually gonna make, before it's finished.
My favorite comment.
We're really fortunate artists don't make useful things like bridges or communication networks
the way they captured the pure bliss on the man's face as he tucks himself into his new overcoat...the gleam in his eyes, the blush in his cheeks, like a child waiting for Santa...it really brought tears to my eyes. And it makes knowing the end of the story even more painful. But that's art. And that's just beautiful. I wish they wouldn't suffer while making their movie but I can at least thank them for having done so, even if only through a comment they'll likely never see (and in my heart.)
I wish Crimean Tatars wouldn't suffer when their homes were taken away and relatives "disappeared" by russian invaders, but the Norstein said he "categorically supports" the occupation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine so I WISH he would actually suffer instead of being a talentless fool westerners are so fascinated with because "russia mysterious".
thank you for this comment it brought me a lot of emotion, the small details really are everything and time is the villain here, it's all so complicated
Their animation style is simply spellbinding. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Breathtaking, boundary-pushing artwork. Sincerely hope there is eventually a release of The Overcoat, in some sort of fashion.
There will be, I just hope it's left "as created", not "finished", "reimagined" or "improved".
Hell. it could be presented with this video as preface. So that the impact of the work, however much actually gets finished, will be better understood. Because by now, this work is only peripherally related to, or constrained by, the source story "The Overcoat".
@@Trollificusv2 100% agree.
@@Trollificusv2 Makes you appreciate the 4 or 5 different versions you can find of the movie Bladerunner, or the 3 version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Some Dvds release different cuts of things as either separate units for purchase, on the same disk at the start menu, or in the special features. So, hopefully they will see a release of previous cuts of their film and an introduction to their learned new technique that made them go back and change it all over again.
Hey Jon, nice seeing you here.
We finally got to see Salvador Dali's _Destino,_ so I have hope we'll see this, too. Even if they never finish, someone will take charge and make sure it's released to the public.
I remember back when I was super into Soviet animation ~15 years ago. After watching Skazka Skazok and Hedgehog in the Fog, I was so pumped to learn that Norstein and Yarbusova were adapting one of my favorite short stories, The Overcoat, into a feature-length film. "They've already been working on it for twenty years!" I thought. "Surely it will be ready soon!"
...
The next time I thought about it was when I saw the title of this video, and knew exactly which film it would be about.
Have you watched the "Treasure Island"? The original subbed version (can be seen on RUclips), not the export one, which is heavily downgraded. It's not as "artsy", more on a fun side, but the animation is just gorgeous.
@@InsidiousOne Tresure Island is by Kyivnaukfilm, the same Ukrainian studio did a whole series of Cossacks cartoons. They were really good!
If you want to help preserving, lobby it! We were urging Criterion to register some of Ukrainian cinema from the era from Dovzhenko studio, like Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, but they absolutely refuse to acknowledge us or answer to comments.
Odesa movie studio was just hit with Iranian drone attack yesterday. Several museums bombed, one flooded, others robbed by russians. Preservation of Ukrainian cultural legacy is very important!
@@KasumiRINA it's not only ukrainian
Soviet made garbage
@@different_stuffvictory for Ukraine 🇺🇦
This almost moved me to tears. As an artist, the desire and will to pour yourself into your work really hit home. The never ending battle with perfection vs completion. To you, the work is never finished because there's always more you can do. Letting go is the hardest part.
Writing is easy, just sit at a desk and bleed onto the paper 🤣
It’s so hard to just commit, draw the line and say “done”.
And then no one seems to know the weight of the failures, the amount of work put in just to get one thing right.
A million to one, and it seems that hardly anyone even wants to notice the one.
At some point such lengthy work of an artist/s becomes the life of an artist/s. Indistinguishable. It is soul transfer.
i definitely shed a few watching this, it is soo sad what they have been put through. Let them create their hearts desire, I will never understand censorship. Its soo sad.
Well said
Here, in Bulgaria, as we were in the Eastern block, every person over 35 remembers Hedgehog and the fog as it was shone as one of the greatest examples of russion genius recurringly on the national television . To this day from time to time it's shown on the program "Good night, kids" (:
wait, you guys have “goodnight, kids” too?? i’m from russia, i never thought this program existed anywhere else! makes sense given our history together, but still, so cool to find out. i wonder if we have the same characters on the show too!
@@yunyunid981 there are different series and short films, so different characters, but for sure we have a lot of them in common
When lithuania was in the USSR it had a goodnight kids program too!
Yeah things tend to get shared when one country keeps invading the others, I'm sure in 10 or 20 years people will be saying the same thing in Ukraine.. "oh isn't that interesting, we share the same TV shows as Russia, what luck"
It is perfection..
I am so afraid Yuri will destroy the unfinished work before he dies. I'm not sure why that is my specific fear, but it is
Because you can sense there’s mental illness going on here.
Folie a deux often ends in murder suicide. In their case the self destruction of their work.
At some point he says that when he makes a discovery or finds something in the process of making the film, he also goes backwards modifing the parts that he has already done to adapt them to the new way found. So somehow he is destroying the film already while making it.
master and margarita
@@latorrefazionemusicanimation of Theseus
@@Beuwen_The_Dragon my favorite paradox! It's a great comment on this movie!
This was such a fascinating story. My god, this feels like a legend, a myth. Truly inscredible.
She just described it.
My bad, read it as "truly indescribible" and thought you were being silly, while it was me who was being silly
Carai
carai
carai
The plight of an artist is so rarely understood by anyone other than themselves. Self sabotage and self criticism to overcome often keep many great pieces from ever coming to light. Others try to change and some offer anything to get these works of art done that completely obscures what the artist is really about. Edit: Also….Amazing video btw. This is the exact reason I’m subscribed to see this in-depth description of something I’ve never even heard of. Thank you
They're obviously insane.
@@justcommenting4981 nah its more that they get so focused on details, and once perfection sets in it can easily overturn their lives. and so many artists have ended up in that trap. hell even the video game industry experiences this. one of the most famous ones is duke nukem forever which was plagued with this, because the original creator basically scrapped the game and started all over again multiple times. it all ended when they ran out of money and someone else bought the rights to the ip
@@luclin92 yea, that's being insane.
@@justcommenting4981 Then send me to an asylum because self-sabotage and the search for wellness is consuming my life
@@jamm6_514 an asylum just keeps you from bothering others not paid to deal with it. Being crazy isn't a crime.
My literature class studied _The Overcoat_ back in my school days and finding out that there’s a unique animated film about it in the works makes me excited for something that probably won’t ever release.
Yeah they're in their 80s & probably not even halfway done. Unfortunately the chances are increasingly slim that it'll ever release. Especially because theyre old which will make the more eccentric issues worse
@@frankmarano1118 One can hope the half produced film is auctioned off to some collector in the future who shows it to the world. I imagine, if anyone decides to pick up where this couple left off, it would likely be a slap in the face to the couple and their work to do the remaining part(s) at a pace any faster than they did. That being said, l wouldn't put it past future humans to use the Blender of the time and finish it themselves over the course of a Red Bull just as a quick fan-fiction side project.
I would be shocked if Criterion or Kino or some other art film restoration and distribution company didn't release a cut of the film, no matter how unfinished, after these two die. Some of the greatest artworks in history were never truly "finished". _The Trial_ by Franz Kafka. Mozart's _Requiem._ The poems of Hoelderlin and Mallarme's _Tomb for Anatole._ In animation, _The Thief and the Cobbler_ and _The King and the Mockingbird_ are two that have developed devoted followings in the years since their noncompletion. We can only hope _The Overcoat_ will join this canon of fragments.
I SO MUCH want to see “ The OverCoat “ !!
They should release what they have , like a 1st half with “ To Be Continued / More To Come “
and then still release thee full version if we get that opportunity ever
@ least they can get rich from some great art and not have any funding issues if they even just drop 1st half.
Anyone who knows anything about this work of art , as well as their plight , we will all wary to see it.
I think Most of Us would as well like to own even a portion of this Masterpiece still in progress.
They could @ least get rid of any financial stress and be able to continue as they wish
If they produce & publish just a portion of what they have.
I mean 40 Years …. Almost every Human on earth will be intrigued , especially if it’s advertised right.
They’ll make a lot of $ while still stay true to their craft & their pure artistic selves.
@@adraedin 💯 All that ☝️
The man is absolutely 100% fulfilled by doing what he does and suffering every second of it. What a mad lad Yuri is.
And his wife. Francesca is the literal artist who creates all this. Why is a woman always so easily forgotten…
"Find what you love and let it kill you." - Charles Bukowski
@@Myacckt the "women" doesn't ask for your pity
One must ACTUALLY imagine Sisyphus happy in this case!
@@MGrey-qb5xzwhy’d you put women in quotes?
Their animation is truly breathtaking in it's beauty, haunting dreaminess and meticulous obsession. Hopefully The Overcoat will get finished within their lifetime.
its*
@@JorgetePanete Wow, you've contributed so much.
To be honest the footage made of the overcoat sucks. I get it's taken years and years but it's all so bloody dark you can't see a thing. A lack of colour, lack of a script and lack of any decent lighting make it look shit
@@graceygal2664You can have an opinion.
@@graceygal2664 you certainly have one of the opinions of all time
And I thought Thief and the Cobbler had a troubled production. Never heard of this film before or most of the topics you cover. That's the main reason I look forward to your videos!
Before watching I 1000% thought this would be about that!
lol better hope i don’t see you out
Or you are done
You’re the one who made fun of my little sister for having autism under that NELK video.
@@tooruoikawa8985 same!
In a way, they're not making The Overcoat, they're living it
You telling me their ghost will haunt a bunch of animators with over due projects once they die? Dope
There’s a movie similar to this idea called Synecdoche New York, it’s an interesting watch
They are not. The overcoat's story is completely different
@@klamerco not the movies themselves, I’m saying this commenters idea of “living your project” is how synecdoche ny plays out
I guess you could say the true overcoat was the friends we made along the way
Just wanted to say that this channel is a gem. A lot of others in this area of RUclips circulate the same stale content, but you always manage to find really fascinating, obscure stories that actually have enough depth to justify a 30-60 minute video.
That’s true I’m impressed how she actually manages this.
@@fidelio9301 4 months seems like a reasonable amount of time to make this video
Amen
@@gandhitheholeresizer8329 For sure but I just meant I agree with the sentiment of how she manages to find topics we haven’t heard much about. It’s cool.
Other than this and the Down the Rabbit Hole series, I don't know of anything else of such quality.. But I'm looking if anyone has channel suggestions!
The Overcoat is my favorite short story I read for my literature classes in school. I’ve reread it and sometimes just think of parts of the story when I’m reminded of it. Knowing this much artistic passion exists towards the story makes me pray a large portion of the film can be completed so that I can sit on my couch on a cold February Saturday morning all depressed yet inspired and in awe of the human condition
This though
Yes
The quality of the animation is mildly terrifying. Especially after hearing all the suffering and struggle that went into it.
All I see is beauty. Funny how subjective art is.
Terrifyingly beautiful?
Beautifully terrifying?
@@pronoobie5780 Yes. ☝️
I feel like some one out there will still edit thier work and make it better. Maybe improve the films fluidity or resolution.
What ever it is that they are trying to achieve will be monumental
@@abstract0407 Sometimes more fluidity doesn’t make the film better, just different. Animation is tricky, what some consider better could be detracting from the creators vision. So any enhancements have to be carefully thought out if the creators are no longer with us.
Your presentation style is second to none.
An official boy in the wild
Atrocity Guide on the official podcast when
Your mother
If this comment were a mine craft block, it'd be planks. I'm stiff as a board thinking that you'd get Atrocity Guide on the podcast.
By-gawd JR its one uh them bois!
"The only things Yuri is afraid of, is the things that might really help him."
A lot of creative people are this way, and I've let myself succumb to this at certain points in my life.
Despair becomes a lifestyle.
Self-Sabotage is comfortable and familiar; success is strange and terrifying.
There's also an aspect of "control" at play. If I were to guess, I imagine Yuri believes that any outside help he accepts compromises the integrity of his work. The work that is really the only thing in his life he probably has ever had total control over.
Fuck, this hits home hard.
this description of me is both comforting and haunting as i imagine what could have been while ignoring what is. a great life that hates himself for not having a great life
Nailed it.
@@IsoYear I call it the "Disney Effect". You give a child a simple, repeating pattern to "success", or "happily ever after".
The child grows, and realizes the actual complexities of life and human relationships, and it starts this sort of dissonance between reality and expectation that we can never seem to reconcile.
Couldn't have said it better out of my mind
The quality of production for these videos is insane. The research required, the nuance of your coverage...it's astonishing and wonderful to experience.
I wish these two the best. Their art is incredible and their devotion is admirable
The Overcoat was one of those stories I read in Literature class that stuck with me. I was really shocked that was the story they're adapting, it makes it especially poetic.
The art is absolutely hauntingly beautiful
Fully full on captivating
You mentioned The King and the Mockingbird, and I love how the main guy behind that was like “Fuck it, we’re finishing it no matter what” so the end product has a clear distinction between the animation that was done in the late 40’s versus the animation that was done in the late 70’s but at least they got it done. I haven’t seen it yet because it’s pretty hard to find but I do know that the music for the finished movie fuckin SLAPS
I know this doesn’t help much now, but the director’s cut was streaming on Mubi last Christmas. If I were you, I’d keep an eye on that and possibly the Criterion Channel, as I think they overlap in programming a bit.
Thanks SO much for bringing these animators to our attention! I had never heard of them or their work before, but god….I am ASTOUNDED by their talent.
As a traditional animator who refuses to give up her paper and pencils to work on a computer, I found this fascinating. I know little of their work, but I'm sure going to delve deeper into it now.
I got into the biz right when Flash took over. I learned to animate on paper and have always missed that tactile feeling and superior look it achieves.
@@Captain_MonsterFart I hear ya. It's just not the same. I was able to work using paper and pencils for three years, then everything switched to Flash. I moved to L.A. and tried for work but everything was switching to 3D computer animation. I moved back East and worked on a show in Flash for two months then quit because I hated it so much. I haven't worked in animation since. Studios like Aardman and LAIKA have tried switching to 3D computer animation, then moved back to real materials like clay and plasicine because it's just not the same result any other way.
_"As a traditional animator who refuses to give up her paper and pencils ..., I found this fascinating"_ - meet Julian Antoniszczak (aka Julian Antonisz), who made his films "non-camera", by drawing individual stills by hand directly on a film. His best known piece is "Jak działa jamniczek" (How a Little Dachshund works"), made in 1971 kinda nonsensical (just like all his works) animated movie, or even just surreal - and narrated (for even more grotesque effect) by some old country lady, a simple(ton) woman who's read the narrative from a written script without understanding much of it - and at any rate many of those words/ terms are child-prattle like, "invented" and quite nonsensical yet amusing. So, without further ado, here:
ruclips.net/video/r16GL3N4PdM/видео.html
Should you be interested I may attempt, or "try my best" to translate the "story" but getting it accurately translated is going to be a "mission nigh impossible"... ;-)
This breaks my heart as a fellow artist, I especially struggle with perfectionism for details people will never notice and end results that barely differ. I'm finally getting past that, but it's been nearly a decade of this mindset that (at least for myself) staggered my growth more than refined it. Maybe it brings them purpose and identity, but its a heavy burden to bear.
edit: I finally updated my avatar to my own art. Previous icon was "The Stalk" from the comic book "Saga".
Did you draw your pfp? If yes, where can I find more. And if no, who did?
My uncle has been writing a history book for nearly 30 years. Part of me thinks he doesn't want to stop as be wont know what to do with himself. Its became the only life he knows. I get the feeling the two discussed are in a similar mindset.
this is just a hot take, but you could say they've become incredibly self-indulgent. deadlines help focus action. without any real time constraints, they've fallen victim to parkinson's law, where the work expands to fill the time allotted. this could be their escape from all the trauma they likely experienced growing up in soviet russia
@@Ten_Thousand_Locusts It's character from the comic book series 'Saga'. The comic has been ongoing since 2012, there are 54 issues as of now, about 9 volumes and more coming in January 2022. It's a bit of a passion project from the creator, with only 2 people working on it. I'd recommend the series to anyone looking into reading comic books
I'm in this boat right now, and I'm trying to active fight it.
"The Hedgehog in the Fog" is a big cultural thing to this day, in the ex-USSR. Where I live we have a franchise of bars called that.
The hedgefog in the hog
Can confirm from Ukraine, one of the classics still
oh damn i thought it was only in latvia, thats awesome
does everyone also go there to smoke weed in yalls countries
@@katekursive1370 that's very interesting to know, thank you for chiming in anyone from Russia or Ukraine
I hope that an untarnished version of whatever the final state of the film ends up being sees a release, I remember being transfixed by the theif and the cobbler simply by nature of the complex and mesmirizing detail and the surreal nature of the characters and movements but the aspects that were clearly just inserted by those without the vision detracted greatly from it. the footage I see of the overcoat is profoundly moving in a manner that I don't think I have felt before and I would hate to see it spoiled by any similar meddling.
I imagine we'll only get to see what's done when one or both of them die as morbid as that sounds
@@RisingRevengeance as sad as it sounds, you might be right. But hopefully they're able to finish it before that.
@@schnauzer360 they aren't getting any younger.
If they don't end up finishing the film it would probably be better that it remain unseen.
@@calicojakk9974 my morbid curiosity and wanton desire to appreciate in it's state the masterpiece of this duo says otherwise.
I love your videos on unique and misunderstood artists! I want to suggest a video about Vivian Maier. She was a photographer who wasn’t discovered until after her death because she never showed the photos to anyone and was a recluse. It’s a fascinating story!
Norstein short films mentioned:
Heron and the Crane
Hedgehog in the Fog
Tale of Tales
Others
Hungarian: the Tragedy of Man, dir. Marcell Jankovics
English: The thief and the cobbler -- dir Richard Williams
The King and the Mockingbird - dir Paul Grimault
Hoffmaniada - dir. Stanislav Sokolov
(Let me know if I missed any! I want to see them all.)
I think, Shojo Tsubaki has similar story of one-man-made animation, except voice actors.
THEY WORKED ON THEIR AND THE COBBLER??? masks sense considering that the 3 people who worked on it are the best sunspots to date
Man after watching this, the visual style of Darkwood makes so much sense now. The game’s visual directors probably watched these cartoons when they were children and it was burn into their memories.
I thought the same thing immediately. The very unique art style of Darkwood makes a lot more sense when you see the Soviet animation style of the 20th century.
"There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband and He Hanged Himself"...wow, and I thought isekai titles were crazy.
As an Isekai it would probably be titled "I Cheated With My Sister's Husband, So What? Let's aim to be the biggest!"
@@Problematist or from the dude's perspective... "I Hanged Myself After Getting Seduced by my Wife's Sister and Now I'm the Demon Lord's Reincarnation in Another World!?"
That’s what happened to my mom. RIP aunt Linda
oh, and dont forget her "There once lived a mother who loved her children, untill they moved back in"
"There Once Lived a Girl Who **spoiler alert** Seduced Her Sister's Husband and He Hanged Himself"
animation is the ultimate beauty of the art world, and its sad to see their talent stomped out by censorship and self sabotage
First
Is it really self sabotage when you are aware of your intentions?
They do this out of their passion despite everything, not for others.
Right. I hate finals trump but still voted for him because of how the dems are against free speech and censorship.
@@sirlimen333 numerous studios/creatives offered to fund production - and they said no. Talk about punching a gift horse in the mouth.
Also If a piece of art is destroying your relationships; it’s probably worth reconsidering how you make it.
You think republicans want to protect your free speech? Uhhhh interesting opinion
I noticed a trend in a couple of the topics you covered. A lot of the time it seems like the main force delaying production is pure perfectionism. That's kinda terrifying.
I hope this labour of love get's finished; I admire the intense dedication of it's creators. Francheska's art is stunningly beautiful, and I think I understand Yuri's pride and stubbornness.
gets*
its*
This reminds me of the The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke a painting by Richard Dadd, who worked on it for 9 years whilst he was held at the Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital. He had murdered his father. He only stopped working on the painting after he was transferred to another mental institution where he later died. The painting references old English folklore and Shakespeare, and has a semi 3D effect due to the amount of paint that Dadd applied to canvas over the years.
"The Overcoat" does seem to have commonalities with such one-of-a-kind things, or Henry Dargers 15,000 page opus.
Their uniqueness falls outside art theory. Indeed, it falls outside the judgement of "normal" artists and critics altogether.
And I LOVE that sort of stuff!!
Ironic surnames be like
...................................Yea, no, I'll bite
.....
Richard Dadd killed his dad..................?
Okay, life
He killed his father, but not murdered him. Because he was too crazy to be competent mentally. Murder implies malicious intent by a competent mind.
@@animula6908 Alright. I'll give you that. I suppose it was all the same to his father though
People waiting for this to be finished are like the Russian equivalent of Berserk fans
Or Half Life 3.
Rest in peace Kentaro Miura
@@A_RUclips_Commenter i mean hl3 will probably happen
Sleep well Miura
me waiting for both of them …
I find the fact that Yuri and his wife are continuing to work on the movie even though they have essentially given up on the idea of finishing it to be very fascinating. Do they feel an obligation to finish it? Do they find value in dedicating all their energy on a project that will never be truly completed? It all just sounds so antithetical to why most people make art and I would love to hear their reasoning and perspective.
Taking a guess, I think they'd say that the "doing of it" is the art, the final product is just a result. Like, the act of painting is the "art", not the finished piece. The playing of the music is the "art", not the recording of it.
Needless to say, this cannot be a popular art school view, because it renders artistic hierarchies irrelevant.
I think making art for oneself's sake is not really antithetical to art, since theres plenty of people who draw/paint/doodle/play music for themselves and arent really interested in putting it out there, but I think it defintely seems antithetical to filmmaking
@@Trollificusv2 That's cool. I wish I could adopt that mentality, but it's too foreign.
I'm a self-taught independent artist, but I only care for the final product. Everything else feels like a barrier between my idea and it's realization
When I leave something I was passionate about creating unfinished, it feels like I've achieved nothing, so of course I am dissatisfied with a lot of the work I've done and that sucks
@@Sergio-nb4hj , There's a saying that I hope will help with your situation (it did for me). It goes: "art is never finished, only abandoned".
It looks like somwhere along the way they just lost track of what they want and just gave up to habit and old age.
i will like to congratulate the channel, and to all the pepleo who worked in this episode.
marvelous. ty
Your researching skills on this video (in my opinion) is almost as brilliant as their animation, and the engaging story telling just tops it all off. Not to mention the aesthetically pleasing linguistics (for me as non native speaker, I appreciate that).
Really running out of things to say here, we'll wait for next video after you wake up again from your creative hibernation, but I can't complain because I do believe that "good things take time".
As much as I admire there sheer dedication and talent; a general rule is that your creation should not consume you. That never ends well.
I agree. Art is incredibly important, but so is enjoying life
I’m figuring that’s why it’s being covered on a channel with the name Atrocity Guide. As an artist myself, I sympathize with wanting to capture as much of your vision as possible, but it can become dangerous if you don’t exercise boundaries with your work.
@@ArekusaSan I don't think I would even want to spend so much on a production, even if its my own. Id get bored and I would just want to be able to make as much shit as I can and improve gradually. Not devote my whole life for chasing perfection and getting only one piece done in my fucking lifetime.
This film isn't for you and I to consume, it's a film for them to enjoy working on. Doing something together with your soul mate is one of the best things one can do with their time. Sometimes stressful, sometimes fun, as with any meaningful relationship.
@@pinetreeYT I think you are missing the point here
In a way, things like this remind me of the lengthy and arduous process that Kentaro Miura had undergone in creating the manga Berserk from 1989 until his untimely death this past June. The meticulous detail he invested in the artwork of every page is staggering, and even after over 30 years it still wasn't complete. Amazing accomplishments by both him and these artists, mad respect to them all🙏
I actually recently began wondering if this animation style is possibly the thing that could make a great adaptation of berserk happen. I think it would allow there to be more of a focus on making a handful of frames, and meticulously rendering them out before animating them all as a whole… honestly I think it would give Berserk the dark fairytale vibe it’s always deserved, and the fact that the last adaptation there EVER was of it before Miura died was the 2016-2017 adaptation…. Fucks with me… I really think this is possible
Miura was also the first person to come to mind
I'm not sure about Miura but mangaka usually have assistants, he himself started his career as assistant of Tetsuo Hara, the creator of Kenshiro.
@@souljastation5463 He has an assistant but the artwork is 100% Miura only. I think he stated in an interview that he only lets his assistants fix mistakes and inconsistencies but that’s it.
@@ayejay8847 mangaka usually have multiple assistants, if he only had one I get why it took so long to publish a new volume.
My gawd. That animation! It's so detailed and fluid my brain insists it's done with computers and just imitating stop-motion because I can't comprehend stop-motion being that complex looking but it is.
Coraline is way better
Thank you so much for putting this together. The Norsteins have been one of my most favorite animators to admire and learn more about. There aren't many overviews on these two in English, so I greatly appreciate you creating this.
Hedgehog in the Fog is an absolutely gorgeous, stunning and unique work of art. It's so atmospheric. Knowing so much more of the story behind its creators is giving me life. What a way to showcase genius and art and how it can overtake your life, and how art is so much more than just a job or a project.
I'm a pretty big animation fan and I've heard so many stories about the same couple hundred animators. I was expecting this to do a documentary on Richard Williams and the Theif and the Cobbler. I've never heard of these two, thank you for sharing this!
Soviet animation (and early russian) is a gold mine - you should look into it.
There’s a lot of great masters: Norshtein, Khitruk, Tatarsky, Atamanov, Ivanov-Vano, Kovolev, Aldashin, Cherkassky and many more. Their animation is passionate, deep, well structured and sometimes with great sense of humor.
You never miss. You always manage to find stories nobody has covered yet, and it’s so evident you’re passionate about the stories you tell. It never feels like you’re covering topics for views, you’re telling these stories because you want them told. Hats off to you, Atrocity. Each time you upload it’s a treat.
You realize you are talking to a computer?
Неожиданно увидеть освещение такой родной темы на этом канале, еще и с такой поразительной глубиной и проработкой. Такое бы по нашим каналам крутить!
@Brandon Knight idk, I saw a couple of videos today and subscribed, seemed an ok channel to me
@Brandon Knight what's wrong with Tom Scott?
@Brandon Knight nigga what
Yeah, right, that's surprising. In case the author will read this branch of comments - i can help with russian words and surnames emphasises and pronunciation in future - if needed, of course. Many content creators struggle with foreign names :) best wishes to Atrocity Guide, though.
Stop speaking gibberish
I’m not sure how it’s possible, but I went to school for animation in the nineties and these artists were never referenced. Just amazing.
the curriculum hadn't caught up with the end of the cold war yet, probably
Because why would you reference garbage tequnique that was forced to grow because of the cesspool it was crafted in? That's like praising the flowers in Cherynobyl for developing radiation resistance because they were forced to grow in an exclusion zone
I'm coming back from a therapy session, and I can recognize myself in Yuri.
Perfectionism are caused by trying to prove your sufficiency, but you can always hide it like" passion or love to the artwork" but most of the times is self sabotage.
Thanks God I contained myself for being a stop motion animator, I KNOWI would have end up working on a film for 50+ years completely alone , because no one would stand me.
Bro… you’re literally 12
Bruh… I’m 26
@@DanielSanchez-ul7ve you’re literally 27 lol.
Hello bro, how were you able to overcome this issue, I’m 25 and i have this problem
In some ways, these two remind me of the Hungarian composer György Kurtág and his wife/collaborator Márta. György is notorious for his intense perfectionism and concentration of material; most of his pieces don't run past 10 minutes in length, some are seconds long. His magnum opus and only opera, an adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame, was premiered in 2018, some sixty years after his first seeing the play, several years after its commission, and when Kurtág was in his 90's--and Márta, who had been integral to his composition process for his entire career, died just under a year later.
I hope that Yuri and Francheska have the time to see their magnum opus through. It looks shockingly, hauntingly beautiful.
Ive never seen anything like it
I do believe that this film will end up like Keith Haring's unfinished painting, where the incompleteness of the work is part of the experience
Keith hearings unfinished work is finished though. In the sense that is intended imagine and symbology he wanted to capture. This... this is something else
Kentaro Miura
I mean, maybe it shouldn't be about whether *we* ever get to see it. Maybe it's just fulfilling on a deep level for a husband and wife to spend their lives doing something they love doing together
That’s beautiful
Wow. Their animation is so beautiful. Thank you for creating this video and exposing the world to their work
I rarely rewatch RUclips videos since there's such a constant stream of new content to watch on here, but this channel is definitely an exception. This video is great, I love stories about passionate, persistent artists.
This is my 2nd watch too!
Read the title and thought this was going to be about Mad God. Both stories of stop motion passion projects in the works for decades. Hopefully I'll be able to see both films one day
Mad Dog already came out tho
@@Otra_Chica_de_Internet only at a few film festivals
@@vampire_juicebox it still came out.
@@justas423 I didn't say it didn't come out
Have seen mad god, you can definitely tells there’s parts they winged/changed the idea for the sake of practicality but there’s basically nothing else like it in cinema. It’s properly grotesque. Fetid, even.
Wake up babe, new Atrocity Guide just dropped.
(I mean this unironically: new videos from you are always the highlight of my day!)
Same
Cue footage of SecundusRomanus waking up his wife at 4 in the morning to watch a new Atrocity Guide video
I'm sure the AI will appreciate your loyalty
Im going to go watch every single movie they made after this like how could you not its just so beautiful in a almost surreal way kinda like a fog or fever dream
Thanks for this-- I'm a huge fan of their work but only knew that production on The Overcoat had stretched on for decades, not a lot of the details and excerpts you offer here. I hope they finish it and that I can one day see it, but their work speaks for itself and they don't owe anyone anything, so if it is never completed they are still legends with a brilliant body of work.
Recently discovered this channel because of the cult documentaries as a part of discovering new bits of culture. Was pleasantly surprised to rediscover some old culture as well. It's definitely an experience watching these cartoons between the ages of 4 and 6. A lot of the more artistic American one's made me think about common tropes in cartoons and whatnot. Old Soviet stuff makes you feel everything that's behind what you're seeing, sometimes including things you thought of while mindlessly drawing the first things that came to mind and trying to turn it into something coherent, other times being scared by what is just black pencil. And it was very normal for little kids to be scared, then laugh about it in a group. It was our fun. You could feel the flow of life. The very pure force of concept. Maybe it wasn't an essay, maybe for us it was just a few words, a quick remark about what we thought and why it was interesting, with only a few sentences behind those few words. But these ideas and feelings grew and became parts of other things. While thinking about daily routine, there would always be a barely noticeable part of this old art in the feelings. That's what the Soviet Union is for us, and the point is that everyone know about everyone else knowing.
This has no coherent meaning, just like the feelings I talked about. And this isn't written during a calm between surges of some kind of illness. It's called "things are so much that way, I guess you could even say that something is just like this..."
Their movies look absolutely gorgeous, I hope they're able to finish their life's work if only so that more people will be able to appreciate what they've been able to achieve despite the obstacles they've faced throughout their careers..
Atrocity Guide's intense dedication to the obscure deserves it's own Atrocity Guide video. Always worth the wait.
This is absolutely amazing, thank you Atrocity Guide. My family immigrated here as refugees from the USSR and I recognize sooo many of these animated films. To be able to hear about this entire story and history is both heart warming and shocking. I'm having my mother watch this too.
Once I read the thumbnail, I immediately thought of The King and the Mockingbird. Thank you for bringing it up, not enough people talk about that film. I still want to find an English subbed version of it available for download or purchase in some form some day, and this film will definitely be the one I hope to see next within my lifetime. In addition to their other work, of course.
Favorite release of yours, yet. Incredibly thought provoking, beautiful, and tragic. Having recently watching Bo Burnham's Inside, I've lately been fascinated w/ the creative process and how finishing a work is the scariest thing a creative can imagine, because it means that they'll be right back where they started.
can't help it but to cry by only looking at the clips you provided of these animations, even if they were just simple walking cycles, they just do something to me
You can feel them in their art in a way I haven't experienced before
I am yet again left speechless. Another video that i find to be on another level compared to other RUclipsrs. Ill be impatiently waiting for the next. Keep up the incredible work Atrocity 💚
Out of all the youtubers, I look forward to and appreciate your works the most -- by a far margin.
Thanks so much for this wonderful tribute. I consider Yuri Norstein one of the genius artists of the 20th century, in any discipline. And props also for highlighting the fundamental role of Francheska Yarbusova, often neglected when considering the work of her husband. These two are a treasure to humanity, and that little studio where they work should be considered a World Heritage site.
masterpiece - not only the source material, but your video (and your Nord VPN sponsorship.) So touching!
Just think of all the wonderful art out there no one has ever seen!
He is very known in Russia, generations grew on his cartoons.
That's sad
I feel like almost every artist, writer, or creator in general can relate to that feeling of devoting so much time and effort to a project that just sits there. But this scale is absolutely horrifying to think about. It really puts the year I spent redoing the intro to my comic that's just getting redone in a much better way anyway into perspective. Things like this really need to be done with a level of awareness of where you're going and exactly how you spend your time if they're going to be successful. But obviously, that's not their goal. I just can't stop thinking about how it must be to work on that film, if their (maybe just his...) philosophy is that they need to suffer to make good art
That was really good. I'll have to find some of their work online to watch
I started watching your videos about half a year ago, and you quickly became one of my favorite youtube channels, if not my absolute favorite. I work night shift and I find your content so captivating, I can lose hours on your content with it only feeling like minutes. It really helps pass time during these long work hours. Thank you for the great content.
Ah - I've loved his work ever since watching "The Hedgehog in the Fog"! I'm always thrilled to see you cover such unique personalities and their life struggles.
As a fellow artist who has spent years on a single project, I fully understand how they feel. They have been doing other projects which delays work on their primary goal, so it isn't like they are only working on just the film. Maybe we want to see what they are working on, but all great artists leave behind unfinished work. What hurts is the work they or others throw out or destroy.
In a way it could probably never live up to the amount of work they’re putting into it in terms of getting what they’d want response wise from it, so maybe it’s good they just continue to get enjoyment out of perfecting it rather than expecting any reaction to it as it’s their life’s works
This was absolute genius. I completely understand why they both are doing this and I completely agree. This is the true definition of a torture artist ..
as someone with a special interest in the history of animation, i am shocked that i've never heard of these two. time to go watch all their work!
dude...
Check out the works of Starewitch too, if you don't know him.
One of the best post I’ve ever seen and heard. Thank you for bringing attention to the wonderful artists.
Excited to see this! Don't think I've ever heard of this story before.
This is the most horrifying thing I can think of as a doodle person to think of, like 40 years of a single project holy shit that’s a lot.
15 hours ago dude comon
Thank you so much for making this video, I had never heard of Yuri and Francheska's films before and I'm absolutely blown away, easily the most beautiful animation I have ever seen.
Your videos are just brilliant. So distinctive in style, editing and narration is brilliant, and such a sensitive approach to the subjects. Really might be the best channel on RUclips.
Real artists move me deeply. Their authenticity, sacrifice, & suffering gives birth to real art & awakens the divine creative forces deep within a sleeping populace that has forgotten these forces long ago. I have chills & I’m in awe of them because real artists are incredibly rare, especially in recent decades. 😭🩵
Nexpo brought me to this channel and I'm so glad. Loved every single bit of this video, your investigation and narration is amazing. Thank you for the content!! I'm subscribing for sure.
This video is absolutely amazing, Ive never heard of Yuri and Franceska and I have to say their animation style evokes a huge swell of emotions in me, just seeing what they have done of the overcoat just brings me to tears.
Richard Williams: I'm going to spend 30 years making The Thief and the Cobbler. No animator is more of a perfectionist than me.
Yuri Norstein: Hold my vodka.
I think Richard would have kept working on the Thief and the Cobbler another couple decades if it wasn't taken from him.
i was searching for this comment
I'm honestly just glad they had each other all this time. Doing what you love, with the person you love... That's a dream for many people, I hope it's theirs too. That they're living the dream.
What a special, ethereal sort of....im not sad. yearning. longing. for something that will clearly never be. a labor of love so intense that nothing less than perfection will suffice. i understand. I only wish to see what manages to be completed by the time there is no more time, yeah?
Your videos are always so well done and they're always about the most interesting subjects. Love your work!
Amazing video again. Good work, Atrocity
So excited about this! Sounds like a really interesting story, and I've missed your videos--they're amazingly put together, keep up the great work
Dear Atrocity Guide,
I've loved quite a few of your videos so far, but this one really stands out. To me, no better documentary could be made about The Overcoat when it comes to style and presentation. What a beautiful atrocity it turned out to be. I hope you are proud of your work
RUclips needs more content like this. Segments that shed light on some of the greatest narrartives in the history of animation. In the past decade or so I've become way more facinated by the people working in animation than the cartoons they create and its a bummer you dont find more of this. Excellent vid! 10/10
I’m so happy you made a video again thank you!