The Cinematheque

Free Admission

“For me, playing with puppets was an ideal way to learn about movement … Marianne’s Theatre is a direct link to my [early] experiences watching puppet shows. The puppeteer, like the film director, is in full control of the action. Little did I know that these fun early lessons would carry me all through my entire career in animation.”

Co Hoedeman

Co Hoedeman, one of the legendary animators that built the reputation of the National Film Board, first came to Canada in 1965 at the age of 25, moving from Amsterdam to Montreal after seeing the films of Norman McLaren at an animation festival. He brought with him the experience of working with his hands; as a child he made puppets, toys, kites, and shadow figures, which led to work on commercials in the Netherlands, then films at the NFB. Hoedeman won the studio its first Academy Award in animation with The Sand Castle, just one example of how the director pushed, to extreme levels, his idea of ​“marionnettes complexe.” What greater challenge could there be for an animator than stop-motion sand? Or take his masterpiece Tchou-tchou and its three levels of movement: hand-drawn art, stop-motion block-puppets, and grand, sweeping camera maneuvers. Trained in childhood play and imagination, these films are all guided by the (mostly) unseen hand of a master puppeteer.

Matrioska
Canada 1970
4 min. DCP

Tchou-tchou
Canada 1972
13 min. DCP

The Sand Castle
Canada 1977
13 min. DCP

Masquerade
Canada 1984
27 min. DCP

Marianne’s Theatre
Canada 2004
15 min. DCP

“​Rich in atmosphere … The film is a powerful tribute to the impermanence of art.”

Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, on The Sand Castle