2004 Directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund
Strings is a mythological story about the son of a king, Hal Tara, who sets out on a journey to avenge the death of his father. To his surprise he discovers the truth of his own people - and where he least expects it - he finds true love.
James McAvoy Catherine McCormack Julian Glover Derek Jacobi Ian Hart Claire Skinner David Harewood Samantha Bond Marina Bouras Pernille Højmark Melinda Kinnaman Paul Hüttel Jonas Karlsson Jesper Langberg Henning Moritzen Søren Spanning Piers Stubbs Jens Jacob Tychsen Michael Culkin Hugo Myatt Sanjay Sonu
BOB Film Sweden AB Bald Film Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) Mainstream ApS Nordisk Film Radar Film Sandrew Metronome Distribution Zentropa Entertainments
Cuerdas, 扯线王子复仇记, ストリングス ～愛と絆の旅路～
UK
France
France
France
UK
Weekly Film Club Vol. 25
I will say it until I die, but I love puppets. Strings is 1000x better than expected, and that all stems from great voice performances, a darkness the script embraces that isn't seen in almost any other puppet films, and some of the most masterful puppetry I have ever seen. On top of all of that it has insanely compelling and thoroughly fleshed out world building.
The world of Strings has just that, strings. They are visible to everyone in the world, as an anchor to the heavens and as the way their limbs work. Sever a string, destroy the connection. This leads to so many interesting concepts that could only be achieved through this…
Fascinating concept that goes to some dark places, but also captures moments of genuine beauty. The plot drifts into generic territory after a while though, but it's more than worth a look for the craftsmanship.
Short version: I liked it, but I bet Charlie Kaufman LOVES it.
Longer Version: Watched this for the animation challenge-this was week #2, a Fantasy film, and while the surface-level plot is a pretty traditional standard riff on the heir to the throne attempting to avenge his father/being taken advantage of by evil advisors, only to find out the truth and bring salvation sorta to the kingdom--the puppet-based animation is gorgeous and distinctive, and happens to be more than a gimmick--from the very first scene, where the old king commits uh, suicide by cutting his own strings, it's clear that there's a lot of thought that's going the way this story's been told and why the characters are puppets that…
I love how they actually incorporate the strings into the story, and the idea of using captured slave body parts to replace upper class damaged bits (its disturbing as heck, but its a cool idea), and that they carve their children. The puppets look amazing, the world looks wonderfully dreary, and this movie isn't afraid to go to some dark places.
The story isn't awe-inspiring, but it's serviceable. Let's be honest here. The joy of this movie is the creativity of the world, how they make every day things feel everyday, just done with puppets. For beings whose mouths don't move at all, you get some decent emotion from them, and care about the characters.
And the opening scene that starts off showing the puppeteers? It almost made me wish that they would cut back to them a few more times during the movie. They were like dark gods pulling the strings.
Arte!
Trabalho de fotografia e design de produção… excelentes!
O som também está ótimo…
A trama estabelece bem a jornada do herói.
Imagino o trabalho e a dedicação nesse projeto…
A sagaz ideia das cordas e seu conceito. Wow.
Tem a sua originalidade.
Well this is all a world away from Lady Penelope, isn't it.
Anders Rønnow Klarlund's marionette fantasy adventure, about a young prince setting off to avenge his 'slain' father, is played out in a much different way than I expected when I first read a basic synopsis on it.
I think there would have been little point in making this age old story with puppets and then leaving it like that. Otherwise the animation here would have been a gimmick and nothing more. Klarlund instead makes the strings of the characters integral to the story - they are literally the life of these puppets and if they lose their strings then they lose their life.
It does make for an…
Still absolutely spectacular.
Some of the most interesting worldbuilding I have seen ever??? Puppetry is phenomenal, love the score, the sets are great, and I'm a big fan of the voice cast.
I fucking love puppets. I will NOT wait another three years to watch this again. Incredible stuff.
Movie #2 of The Weekly Animation Challenge 2020.
Task 2: Fantasy Films
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Wow! This is one of the most aesthetic beautifully films I have ever seen.
The puppets are amazing and the sets are incredible to look at. And the concept is brilliant.
The story itself is not that interesting but I was captivated all the way through due to the amazing visuals.
Strings is a reasonably generic ancient fantasy story, with some tragedy, and a little Romeo and Juliet favor too.
A king commits suicide leaving a note handing power over to his son, Hal. Only the King's wicked brother and wretched henchman discover the letter first and destroy it, seizing power themselves and desecrating the king's corpse and placing the blame on the kingdom's nemesis rival clan.
Hal leads a team to seek vengeance only to learn of his uncle's treachery and return home to reclaim his rightful place as king.
The most noteworthy thing about Strings is the artistry and the world building. It's told using marionettes with very noticeable strings. These strings are the very lifeblood of the characters…
My Mum bought me this for Christmas as a recommendation. It's such a unique and clever film. The string puppets work really well. A lot of work must of went into this to make it look so good.
Strings has a brilliant concept, a marionette puppet fantasy story set in a world where the characters die if their strings are cut. It’s a technical marvel and visually quite strong but unfortunately the story is your standard cliched fantasy mumbo, which kind of lets the movie down. The english voicecast is good as well but the dialogue is heavyhanded and stiff. A really nice try though.
albeit having a cliche plot, the idea of marionettes literally relying on their strings for life is interesting. thought it was quite underrated but maybe people don’t appreciate puppetry 🤷🏻♀️
