The Cinematheque

“A weirdly affecting tragicomedy … Memoir of a Snail feels heartfelt and personal, like an exhortation to the downtrodden drawn from hard-won life experience.”

Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

Recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Adam Elliot’s tragicomedy recounts the misfortunes of a misfit named Grace who becomes obsessed with snails. After she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert, traumatic events and failed relationships compound and lead to a myriad of mental health conditions including hoarding, kleptomania, and depression. To cope, a melancholic Grace becomes an ardent collector of romance novels and guinea pigs. Eventually her loneliness is alleviated by an unlikely but sweet friendship with an eccentric elderly woman named Pinky, whose lust for life offers Grace a glimmer of inspiration and hope. A stop-motion feat worthy of the big screen, Elliot’s poignant tale features over 200 handmade claymation puppets, rivalling a Tim Burton production. The medium is particularly suited to exploring the imperfections of the human condition, including its most agonizing and beautiful quandaries.

“Memoir of a Snail​’s family-entertainment approachability belies a strange intensity … There are some candid hints, through the obviously personal narrative touches, that in this film some very real adult pain and anger is being hidden in plain sight—or, actually, not at all hidden.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Post-screening discussion with Wolfgang Linden, a professor emeritus in Clinical and Health Psychology at UBC.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, series director.