I see the woman actually being his dead wife, who he views as an angel. In order to bring her back he tries to structure an angel himself and goes insane from her death. That would explain her ghostliness, the worm part, and then his death, at least to me.
Theoretically, in order for humans to have wings on their back we would have to have hollow or at least much lighter bones. Not to mention that our wings would have to be very large and extremely muscular in order to do so. It would also take up lots of energy to do so. Flying in place for just a little bit would tire you out as much as running as fast as you can for several minutes (this may seem easy for some, but for most it can very tireing). Also, our bodies are extremely un-aerodynamic, meaning that we would have a difficult time just flying forward. There are several other factors of why having wings isn't what you think it is, but these are just a few.
I don't think this short film is meant to be taken "theoretically" or realistically. It is a surreal film. I understand how wings work just as well as you seem to, but it didn't distract me from the beautiful animation nor the story.
Liberty White sorry, i meant in reality. My comment had nothing to do with the video other than humans having wings. It was just a fun fact, nothing to hate on the video (i thought it was awesome)
Bravo! This is art.... i was starving for something provoking,and this came along.I feel well fed now.... hats off to this film- maker!!! 5 stars and two thumbs up.
That was pretty interesting. It kind of reminded me of how MTV used to be really late at night. Very artistic. Nice style of wordless expression and surreal animation. Hope to see more soon.
This was very unique and I hope to see more like it. I think the girl represented a lost love. Kind of like in the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Where he forbid the mention of the name in his house because it brought him so much pain, but there were just certain things that reminded him of that.
that was beautiful, yet disturbing. i genuinely don't know whether to run the hell upstairs and dive under the covers, or burst out into applause (though my family will probably look at me like i'm crazy). i think it's a shame that some people can't see the real beauty behind this animation, because it's a real work of art. the story is random yet morbidly fascinating. the classical music with the occasional sound effects- not to mention the lack of color- just wrap it up great. hats off to you!
This is the second time I've watched this and since studying year 12 advanced English I see so much more meaning within it. The first time I watched it I thought it was sweet but now I am utterly revolted. It's disgusting how far he is willing to go with his experiments... But it was very well made :)
I just saw this on SHORT channel on Directv and was completely mesmerized. I hoped so much it was on RUclips. Thank you! Beautiful animation and even more beautiful story.
I love all the delicate mechanical details that rule this man's life...and find it particularly delicate on a symbolical level when he goes fishing for birds.
To me, the protagonist symbolizes science. A man who is so focused on answering one question that he shuts everything out, stays in the house, & builds a contraption to kill anything or anyone that comes near the gate. His unwillingness to touch or be touched is also shown by all the mini contraptions he makes with tiny hands, so that they are the ones moving things, and not him. But this sterile life is not life for him, & he begins to imagine what he could have had.
Most fascinating part to me is the title. The title blends in among household care tapes and tutorials simply for starting with How. If it's skim read near "How Money Is Made" "How To Clean Your House", then some probably didn't even understand this is an animation
Would love to hear what the creators of this film have to say about it. After reading the comments here I guess that a lot of people found it beautiful (like myself) and a lot of people on the other hand have found it 'creepy'. I think it's a mixture of both, although I didn't quite get the message that the artists were trying to give. So I'd love to know.
This is one of those videos where you don't find it amusing or exciting but you just have to watch it and it was fantastic! This actually made my day just from seeing that short story, and the way that it was told through pictures... Bravo!!!
To me it speaks to human beings searching for meaning and connection in the modern age. When you can have everything you've ever wanted at the touch of a button except for real love, your appetites become more perverse and eventually, you begin to hurt people in pursuit of them. Eventually, you lose the very thing that makes you human and become just another consumable thing
I saw this like 5 years ago on a random public access channel and have had it in the back of my mind since then. Now I finally found it. Thanks, Don Hertzfeldt.
The first time I watched it which was right now.. I think the meaning of it is this man will literally kill people just to take bones from them and create his own angles, thinking that that's what it takes but really for you to be an angle doesn't mean you need wings. Which is why I this art you see the man open the girls back, his way of thinking that she's an angle but really there's no proof to be found by the bones for wings. Then when she walks out of the gate he discovers that she is an angle, how could he be so blind? After that he is then killed, putting all those deaths caused by him for his own art to peace. He died the same way he killed his own, which is in the beginning when he chopped off his head, same with the man. All those skull heads that he is out with is all of his own that he cut off, at least now there will be no more killings for art. This is all my opinion, I'm not sure if this is the real meaning but it's what I think and put together
Huh. I remember watching this video when I was younger, about 8 or so. I watched it over and over and over. I never "got" it when I was young but I loved it and watched it anyways. Bit weird now that I think of it but still nostalgic to find this vid again after all these years.
absolutely brilliant work and such a sad story "I built my love a cage of gold To joy her into song, And wistfully, with woe untold, I waited long and long; But from that home so exquisite No tiny tune would come, And though my heart with hope was lit, My bird was dumb. "
A bit creepy yet brilliant. I love the mix of real images and animations. When she walked out onto the patio, I had a deja vu flashback from the TV show "Beauty and the Beast" Where Linda Hamilton walks out on the patio much the same way. Assuming anyone remembers that show LOL.
The woman that appears looks much more like a human than he does; he looks like a caricature or a cartoon. She symbolizes humanity, warmth, and love-- things he could've found in the outside world which he avoids. But he also fears that if ever there was a real woman there, he would end up dissecting her to find out how wings are attached to the banks of angels. & even when he tries to go outside, he is beset by panic (the maggots/worms eating up his body) & goes back in the house.
thank you!! i was looking for this short animation since 2010 ,7 years i was looking for that, trying to remember the name of this short film, god bless you
9:49 Is it me, or was that not accidental, because there was time for him to avoid it, but he didn't want to, it's like he rendered to his faith to die like that - to follow the woman or giving up on her. An incredible film with its organic sound, like that skeleton scene, is insane, I watched it on repeat for a while. This fellow is playing with fire. Most viewers would say he looks like a lunatic, but it seems to me he isn't particularly satisfied with what he does, so it's kind of a sentimental game, hence a birds or angels wings are very graceful and escapist loaded subject. Perhaps he wants to fly away from his fancy misery in that estate. But the finale scene makes it pretty clear, he lost the game, but something tells me it was perhaps on purpose, because this is not a stupid man.
I like the idea of "early in the mourning" (as opposed to morning)... it is a dark Gilliam-esque idea, beautifully drawn and paced. Good art disturbs the viewer, it is the job of the artist to wake the viewer up from their slumber.
My theory: The man has a neurodivergent obsession with creating strange taxidermy creatures. It is a niche hobby which takes over his life and causes him to have trouble forming connections with other people. This coupled with his poor social skills cause him to live his life as a hermit. The woman is someone the man desires but is unable to obtain. She is aware of his hobby and is not weirded out by him. The man sees beauty in her the same way he sees beauty in his winged creations. And she desires him back enough that she lets him touch her. The man has never had this sort of relationship with a person and fears that he never will. He becomes disgusted with himself as though he is made of worms- ugly, nasty, wriggling things instead of the free and divine creatures which he is fixated on. No longer able to bear this solitude, the man leaves his home in pursuit of human connection. This results in exactly what he feared: he commits some sort of social blunder which humiliates him and makes him want to self isolate again. Just like what happened every other time he was desperate enough to leave the safety of the very small world he created for himself. And he will continue to live in solitude until it slowly kills him or until he feels a crushing desperation again.
this has inspired me to go back to animation there are soo many things one can do with animation everyrhing you can imagine ,you have showed us this with your beautifully creepy and smart animation.
This is great, I loved the way the rotoscoping blended in with the artwork of the piece. I was particularly impressed by the scene where the "angel" was playing the piano. On that note the sound was brilliant, the way you could hear the gears on the machines he was using was great.
A brokenhearted man, who spended all his time and did the best he could to try to serve his girl like an angel. At the end, he found out that the girl would have never been as he expected. She dumped him, and broke his heart just like men fell, out of love. So "how wings are attached to the back of angels" is a tricky title inviting all men who think the same as that man.
simply wonderful, it provokes the mind to think, and vivid details of the characters give you the satisfying suspense and the dark spooky nature of it all, makes your heart pound at the question, "what comes next?"
+Kless Arkein The meaning is that through his morbid experiments, he turned himself absolutely insane. He was trying to "play God" and create things, and the world - for lack of better terms - turned on him for it.
+Glitchy Wolf - "through his morbid experiments, he turned himself absolutely insane" - no, he simply wasted his life, trying to recreate natural beauty. Maybe the next scientist would have better luck - it happens sometimes.
I love how dark and mysterious this is. You can translate this story in many different ways that takes true creativity. This is a kind of dark beauty that is hard to find.
i love how the girl is so different from everything else.how shes glows while everything else is partly in shadow. i think that rly ses something about her. and the piano music is beautiful too.all in all beautifuly done.
i was really creeped out at first, but it eventually got really deep and beautiful. love short films like this. kinda reminds me of edward gorey. good job!
At 5:00, when the lady walks in through the window, and how she looks so human in this 2 dimensional world, it made me think about the games Myst and Riven, by how there is never any dialogue and by the unfluid movements of the woman. Great video, and to the magician who made this magic.
Wow... can't believe there's a friggin flame-war going on in the comments. Grow up, children. Great video. Beautiful and awe-inspiring. It makes me think of some bizarre nightmares I might have had every once in a great while.
this was pretty deep, she obviously left him (died or otherwise) and since she's been gone he has to have absolute control over everything left in his life (i.e. the bonzai, the dragonfly, the bird, etc ..) I think the wings is just a manifestation of his subconscious telling him to let go of the control ... thanks for the upload
this is one the of greatest animations i have ever seen in my life, i dont totally understad it, like the jacket turning in to worms but this its self was insane and wonderfuly created.
I see the woman actually being his dead wife, who he views as an angel. In order to bring her back he tries to structure an angel himself and goes insane from her death. That would explain her ghostliness, the worm part, and then his death, at least to me.
+TheSmartSheep this is the only rational explanation I've seen. lol
Perhaps he killed his wife. And now, he is repenting and seeing ghostly images of her.
TheSmartSheep 8
Only when I got 9 minutes through this film did I begin to consider 'What the fuck am I watching?'
Omg same
Me to! I was like 'What the actual fuck is this?'
It's called "art".
You need to watch more films if you think this is weird lmao
At the end of life, all human struggles, anxieties, efforts to make sense of his world, mean nothing more than a bit of sand.
Vanity ,,,,every thing is vanity! King Solomon.
Theoretically, in order for humans to have wings on their back we would have to have hollow or at least much lighter bones. Not to mention that our wings would have to be very large and extremely muscular in order to do so. It would also take up lots of energy to do so. Flying in place for just a little bit would tire you out as much as running as fast as you can for several minutes (this may seem easy for some, but for most it can very tireing). Also, our bodies are extremely un-aerodynamic, meaning that we would have a difficult time just flying forward. There are several other factors of why having wings isn't what you think it is, but these are just a few.
I don't think this short film is meant to be taken "theoretically" or realistically. It is a surreal film. I understand how wings work just as well as you seem to, but it didn't distract me from the beautiful animation nor the story.
Liberty White sorry, i meant in reality. My comment had nothing to do with the video other than humans having wings. It was just a fun fact, nothing to hate on the video (i thought it was awesome)
+Chase Randalow That weird moment when you realize this is in the same place you left it when you read it a year ago.
great to ruin the moment
What are the other factors?
The Piano music is Chopin's Nocturne No. 1 in B flat Minor, Op 9, No1.
You're a hero, sir. Thanks!
Why does mostly play at christmas?
Bravo! This is art.... i was starving for something provoking,and this came along.I feel well fed now....
hats off to this film- maker!!! 5 stars and two thumbs up.
That was pretty interesting. It kind of reminded me of how MTV used to be really late at night. Very artistic. Nice style of wordless expression and surreal animation. Hope to see more soon.
The sound design on this is AMAZING
This was very unique and I hope to see more like it. I think the girl represented a lost love. Kind of like in the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Where he forbid the mention of the name in his house because it brought him so much pain, but there were just certain things that reminded him of that.
that was beautiful, yet disturbing. i genuinely don't know whether to run the hell upstairs and dive under the covers, or burst out into applause (though my family will probably look at me like i'm crazy). i think it's a shame that some people can't see the real beauty behind this animation, because it's a real work of art. the story is random yet morbidly fascinating. the classical music with the occasional sound effects- not to mention the lack of color- just wrap it up great.
hats off to you!
This is the second time I've watched this and since studying year 12 advanced English I see so much more meaning within it. The first time I watched it I thought it was sweet but now I am utterly revolted. It's disgusting how far he is willing to go with his experiments... But it was very well made :)
+PersonCalledSteph Can you explain the meaning behind it,please?
Not really. I made this comment a year ago and meanings change between people and over time. I honestly can't remember what I pulled from it.
The music and the sounds were amazing. A very good imagination. Enjoyed this.
I just saw this on SHORT channel on Directv and was completely mesmerized. I hoped so much it was on RUclips. Thank you! Beautiful animation and even more beautiful story.
I love all the delicate mechanical details that rule this man's life...and find it particularly delicate on a symbolical level when he goes fishing for birds.
this is great! i love the mysteriousness and distantness of it and yet how close it is to real life.
Really amazing concept, the art was great the shading on everything was so dark and smooth- this deserves nothing less then a 5/5.
To me, the protagonist symbolizes science. A man who is so focused on answering one question that he shuts everything out, stays in the house, & builds a contraption to kill anything or anyone that comes near the gate. His unwillingness to touch or be touched is also shown by all the mini contraptions he makes with tiny hands, so that they are the ones moving things, and not him. But this sterile life is not life for him, & he begins to imagine what he could have had.
Most fascinating part to me is the title. The title blends in among household care tapes and tutorials simply for starting with How. If it's skim read near "How Money Is Made" "How To Clean Your House", then some probably didn't even understand this is an animation
Well that was vaguely disturbing
I think he's thinking about the woman he loved who died, and his own mortality.
He just passed away from COVID-19.
@Shane Howard It’s not a joke. He’s a friend of a friend and he died last year.
7:25 is my favorite part. for some reason i think the transition is absolutely beautiful!
I love the way this film makes me feel...It just inspires me to do EVERYTHING creative.
Would love to hear what the creators of this film have to say about it. After reading the comments here I guess that a lot of people found it beautiful (like myself) and a lot of people on the other hand have found it 'creepy'. I think it's a mixture of both, although I didn't quite get the message that the artists were trying to give. So I'd love to know.
This short, ever since I first saw it at the NFBC kiosk in Toronto, has stuck with me. Perfect Edward Gorey meets David Lynch vibes. 🖤
Damn curiosity, you scary!
This is one of those videos where you don't find it amusing or exciting but you just have to watch it and it was fantastic! This actually made my day just from seeing that short story, and the way that it was told through pictures... Bravo!!!
Moral of the story, don't let strange weird bird ladies get in your house
To me it speaks to human beings searching for meaning and connection in the modern age. When you can have everything you've ever wanted at the touch of a button except for real love, your appetites become more perverse and eventually, you begin to hurt people in pursuit of them. Eventually, you lose the very thing that makes you human and become just another consumable thing
Whatever it meant, it was awesome!
I saw this like 5 years ago on a random public access channel and have had it in the back of my mind since then. Now I finally found it. Thanks, Don Hertzfeldt.
The first time I watched it which was right now.. I think the meaning of it is this man will literally kill people just to take bones from them and create his own angles, thinking that that's what it takes but really for you to be an angle doesn't mean you need wings. Which is why I this art you see the man open the girls back, his way of thinking that she's an angle but really there's no proof to be found by the bones for wings. Then when she walks out of the gate he discovers that she is an angle, how could he be so blind? After that he is then killed, putting all those deaths caused by him for his own art to peace. He died the same way he killed his own, which is in the beginning when he chopped off his head, same with the man. All those skull heads that he is out with is all of his own that he cut off, at least now there will be no more killings for art. This is all my opinion, I'm not sure if this is the real meaning but it's what I think and put together
Basically he is killing people to make angles, then an angle in disguise kills him.
*angel
Ayyleen Lira angles?
This is by far the best video I've ever seen !!!
Huh. I remember watching this video when I was younger, about 8 or so. I watched it over and over and over. I never "got" it when I was young but I loved it and watched it anyways. Bit weird now that I think of it but still nostalgic to find this vid again after all these years.
absolutely brilliant work and such a sad story
"I built my love a cage of gold
To joy her into song,
And wistfully, with woe untold,
I waited long and long;
But from that home so exquisite
No tiny tune would come,
And though my heart with hope was lit,
My bird was dumb. "
Never watch while high
It has ben long long time since I watched something this good...
Mr Welsh-- congrats.. I am very pleased to watch this piece....
Many thanks
Armenia
Even better moral of the story: don't do drugs
A bit creepy yet brilliant. I love the mix of real images and animations. When she walked out onto the patio, I had a deja vu flashback from the TV show "Beauty and the Beast" Where Linda Hamilton walks out on the patio much the same way. Assuming anyone remembers that show LOL.
beautiful
The woman that appears looks much more like a human than he does; he looks like a caricature or a cartoon. She symbolizes humanity, warmth, and love-- things he could've found in the outside world which he avoids.
But he also fears that if ever there was a real woman there, he would end up dissecting her to find out how wings are attached to the banks of angels. & even when he tries to go outside, he is beset by panic (the maggots/worms eating up his body) & goes back in the house.
Did anyone else think ME!ME!ME! When watching this?
Jup...
ME ME ME is kind of more what the fuck is going on and it's more colorful and trippy and it moves fast this is the opposite but with the what the
thank you!! i was looking for this short animation since 2010 ,7 years i was looking for that, trying to remember the name of this short film, god bless you
hey is your logo meant to be the all seeing eye or the eye of sauron
I watched this amazing film for the first time fifteen years ago, and I am just thrilled to see it again. Absolutely gorgeous.
I always just use a staplegun and hot glue.
Disturbing? Yes, but probably one of the most beautiful works of art I have seen in a long time. Bravo.
What the hell did I just watch?
Wow! what a trip... Thank You...
cool animated rube goldberg machine
That was actually fun to watch, and the sound design was great, too.
Very interesting. I can't quite discern the meaning, however...
9:49 Is it me, or was that not accidental, because there was time for him to avoid it, but he didn't want to, it's like he rendered to his faith to die like that - to follow the woman or giving up on her.
An incredible film with its organic sound, like that skeleton scene, is insane, I watched it on repeat for a while.
This fellow is playing with fire. Most viewers would say he looks like a lunatic, but it seems to me he isn't particularly satisfied with what he does, so it's kind of a sentimental game, hence a birds or angels wings are very graceful and escapist loaded subject.
Perhaps he wants to fly away from his fancy misery in that estate.
But the finale scene makes it pretty clear, he lost the game, but something tells me it was perhaps on purpose, because this is not a stupid man.
Creepy in a sense, but I liked it.
the shudder never came....
it just stayed......
gently resting
against my back.....
thankyou..
most wonderful....
That's not how it works but it was really cool
Wow! I like this kind of art
... and all this time I thought they just used staples.
Hauntingly beautiful!
I can't tell if I like this or not...
figure it out yet?
How bout now
I like the idea of "early in the mourning" (as opposed to morning)... it is a dark Gilliam-esque idea, beautifully drawn and paced.
Good art disturbs the viewer, it is the job of the artist to wake the viewer up from their slumber.
My theory:
The man has a neurodivergent obsession with creating strange taxidermy creatures. It is a niche hobby which takes over his life and causes him to have trouble forming connections with other people. This coupled with his poor social skills cause him to live his life as a hermit.
The woman is someone the man desires but is unable to obtain. She is aware of his hobby and is not weirded out by him. The man sees beauty in her the same way he sees beauty in his winged creations. And she desires him back enough that she lets him touch her.
The man has never had this sort of relationship with a person and fears that he never will. He becomes disgusted with himself as though he is made of worms- ugly, nasty, wriggling things instead of the free and divine creatures which he is fixated on.
No longer able to bear this solitude, the man leaves his home in pursuit of human connection. This results in exactly what he feared: he commits some sort of social blunder which humiliates him and makes him want to self isolate again. Just like what happened every other time he was desperate enough to leave the safety of the very small world he created for himself. And he will continue to live in solitude until it slowly kills him or until he feels a crushing desperation again.
did anyone else think of Monty Python?
me too :)
Thank you, Stephen Fry, for bringing me here. God, I'm lost for words.
Wow im not even sure what that was but it was Wow
this has inspired me to go back to animation there are soo many things one can do with animation everyrhing you can imagine ,you have showed us this with your beautifully creepy and smart animation.
i dont get it
Thank you.
This video inspired that poem.
"...these visions dont persist..."
lesson don't turn women into birds, or shit hits the fan
it's just great!!
Thaks for doing a short-film that really means something. Congratulations!!
wtf did i just watch XD
Porn
This is great, I loved the way the rotoscoping blended in with the artwork of the piece. I was particularly impressed by the scene where the "angel" was playing the piano. On that note the sound was brilliant, the way you could hear the gears on the machines he was using was great.
Why am I here?
I am also lost- I was just listening to foo fighters :/
Intriguing. There's no other word for this. It's... a masterpiece.
What even is the point to this? Someone pls tell me .
He thought he can create an angel find the true logic in this fantasy but couldn't
ah. thanks
A brokenhearted man, who spended all his time and did the best he could to try to serve his girl like an angel. At the end, he found out that the girl would have never been as he expected. She dumped him, and broke his heart just like men fell, out of love.
So "how wings are attached to the back of angels" is a tricky title inviting all men who think the same as that man.
That was exactly what i needed to watch before going to sleep, well done...
This=mind fuck
simply wonderful, it provokes the mind to think, and vivid details of the characters give you the satisfying suspense and the dark spooky nature of it all, makes your heart pound at the question, "what comes next?"
This film says.........
........... nothing.
+Kless Arkein yeh
+Kless Arkein The meaning is that through his morbid experiments, he turned himself absolutely insane. He was trying to "play God" and create things, and the world - for lack of better terms - turned on him for it.
+Glitchy Wolf - "through his morbid experiments, he turned himself absolutely insane" - no, he simply wasted his life, trying to recreate natural beauty. Maybe the next scientist would have better luck - it happens sometimes.
I love how dark and mysterious this is. You can translate this story in many different ways that takes true creativity. This is a kind of dark beauty that is hard to find.
I don't know whether to be disturbed, amused or intrigued...amazing!
i love how the girl is so different from everything else.how shes glows while everything else is partly in shadow. i think that rly ses something about her. and the piano music is beautiful too.all in all beautifuly done.
i was really creeped out at first, but it eventually got really deep and beautiful. love short films like this. kinda reminds me of edward gorey. good job!
At 5:00, when the lady walks in through the window, and how she looks so human in this 2 dimensional world, it made me think about the games Myst and Riven, by how there is never any dialogue and by the unfluid movements of the woman.
Great video, and to the magician who made this magic.
Wow... can't believe there's a friggin flame-war going on in the comments. Grow up, children.
Great video. Beautiful and awe-inspiring. It makes me think of some bizarre nightmares I might have had every once in a great while.
this was pretty deep, she obviously left him (died or otherwise) and since she's been gone he has to have absolute control over everything left in his life (i.e. the bonzai, the dragonfly, the bird, etc ..) I think the wings is just a manifestation of his subconscious telling him to let go of the control ... thanks for the upload
That was absolutly stunning. Beautifully animated. It was perfect :)
To control the world around you, is to lead yourself to death.
I liked the style imensly. Loved it as a whole. Keep doing this its a true work of art.
I really liked this. The grainy animation and the music was spectactular. I liked the machines and the schematics... very nice.
Wow.That was thought provoking.The artwork alone is amazeing.
Man I just came home from a buddies house, really baked and thought I'd watch random videos. This is the trippiest shit I've ever seen.
This is was so...interesting. The whole style of it is great. I love it !
Since 08 I keep coming back to this one on occasion.
I like it each time when I'm in that mood.
Wow. I think as much praise is due for the sound effects as for the animation.
Beautifully done. Reminded me a bit of Edward Gorey in the beginning, during the scene with the gate and the bird, for some reason.
I loved it!
There are many quotes that have echoed throughout the centuries to be with us today. I can only hope yours will achieve that status.
this is one the of greatest animations i have ever seen in my life, i dont totally understad it, like the jacket turning in to worms but this its self was insane and wonderfuly created.
literal coolest thing ever
Wow, so thought provoking. I may never forget this.
Loved it! Creepy, but insanely interesting. Reading the description helps.
One of the most beautiful short films ever made, Canada really is the king of the genre