![](\"https:\/\/cdn8.openculture.com\/2014\/10\/25124110\/Une-nuit-sur-le-Mont-Chauve-1.jpg\")
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If you read Open Cul\u00adture reg\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly, I imag\u00adine I can safe\u00adly call Alexan\u00adder Alex\u00adeieff and Claire Park\u00ader your favorite France-based, Russ\u00adian-Amer\u00adi\u00adcan hus\u00adband-wife pin\u00adscreen ani\u00adma\u00adtion team. Dare I pre\u00adsume to refer to them as your favorite pin\u00adscreen ani\u00adma\u00adtors, peri\u00adod? We\u2019ve pre\u00advi\u00adous\u00adly fea\u00adtured two exam\u00adples of their time- and labor-devour\u00ading but utter\u00adly dis\u00adtinc\u00adtive ani\u00adma\u00adtion tech\u00adnique: their eerie open\u00ading to Orson Welles\u2019 adap\u00adta\u00adtion of Kafka\u2019s The Tri\u00adal<\/em><\/a>, and their own daz\u00adzling adap\u00adta\u00adtion of Gogol\u2019s short sto\u00adry \u201cThe Nose.\u201d<\/a> Alex\u00adeieff and Park\u00ader\u2019s trip to the Gogol well reflects their pen\u00adchant for the imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtive cre\u00adators of Alex\u00adeief\u00adf\u2019s home\u00adland. The film we present here draws its inspi\u00adra\u00adtion not from a Russ\u00adian writer, but from the Russ\u00adian com\u00adpos\u00ader Mod\u00adest Mus\u00adsorgsky<\/a>, him\u00adself an enthu\u00adsi\u00adas\u00adtic incor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtor of his coun\u00adtry\u2019s lore and tra\u00addi\u00adtions.<\/p>\n You cer\u00adtain\u00adly know at least one work of Mus\u00adsorgsky\u2019s: Night on Bald Moun\u00adtain<\/i>, which he wrote ear\u00adly in his career but which nev\u00ader saw a full orches\u00adtral debut until 1886, five years after his death. Over half a cen\u00adtu\u00adry after that, the piece found a much wider audi\u00adence through its use in Walt Dis\u00adney\u2019s Fan\u00adta\u00adsia<\/em>. For many, that inter\u00adsec\u00adtion of Mus\u00adsorgsky and Mick\u00adey Mouse will remain the finest exam\u00adple of clas\u00adsi\u00adcal music unit\u00aded with ani\u00adma\u00adtion, but have a look at how Alex\u00adeieff and Park\u00ader did it \u2014 in 1933, no less, sev\u00aden years before Fan\u00adta\u00adsia<\/em> \u2014 and see what Car\u00adtoon Research\u2019s Steve Stanch\u00adfield<\/a> calls \u201cone of the most unusu\u00adal and unique look\u00ading ani\u00admat\u00aded films ever cre\u00adat\u00aded.\u201d It presents, he writes, \u201cboth delight\u00adful and at times hor\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading imagery, a stream of con\u00adscious\u00adness bar\u00adrage of images that chal\u00adlenge the view\u00ader to com\u00adpre\u00adhend both their mean\u00ading and the mys\u00adtery of how they were cre\u00adat\u00aded.\u201d<\/p>\n To my four-year-old self, Fan\u00adta\u00adsia <\/em>seemed pret\u00adty scary too, but Alex\u00adeieff and Park\u00ader have, on their pin\u00adscreen, tak\u00aden things to a whole oth\u00ader psy\u00adcho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal lev\u00adel<\/a>. Near\u00adly forty years lat\u00ader, they would use the music of Mussko\u00adr\u00adgy again to cre\u00adate 1972\u2019s French-lan\u00adguage Pic\u00adtures at an Exhi\u00adbi\u00adtion<\/a><\/em>. They would make anoth\u00ader, Trois Themes<\/em>, in 1980, but it appears lost to time, at least for the moment. Have we made you into the kind of pin\u00adscreen ani\u00adma\u00adtion enthu\u00adsi\u00adast who might unearth it? You can view their pin\u00adscreen ani\u00adma\u00adtion of Night on Bald Moun\u00adtain<\/em> on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\t