Les journaux de Lipsett (2010) User Reviews

Very Nice, Very Nice

[Rectangular_businessman · 10/10 · 27 April 2013]

This is such an impressive work, which kept my attention from beginning to end. Not only for the astounding animation, but also for the incredibly captivating plot, which explores in a fascinating way the mind and memories of the filmmaker Arthur Lipsett, who I didn't know until I saw this short.

Words simply cannot express the incredibly beauty and intensity of this short. The best thing that could do to describe how good is this is to suggest the viewer to imagine a collaborative work between Aleksandr Petrov (the director of the incredibly animated short "The Old Man and the Sea") and Gerrit van Dijk (An incredibly talented but also underrated Dutch animator) to make a film like Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg". And yet, I'm not sure if that comparison could make any justice to "Lipsett Diaries".

Thanks to this animation, I am now very interested to see the short films directed by Arthur Lipsett.

10/10 (And I would rate this with eleven stars if I could. In my opinion, this is an extraordinary animation.)

Justice done I guess (but not in a positive sense)

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 28 July 2016]

"Les journaux de Lipsett" or "Lipsett Diaries" is a 14-minute animated short film. The director is Theodore Ushev and the writer is Chris Robinson. For both of them, this film is probably the most known work they have come up with so far, especially looking at the awards recognition it received. Films on troubled filmmakers have been en vogue for a while now and it probably all started with the Oscar-winning "Ryan". This is a tribute to Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett here and fittingly it was produced by the National Film Board of Canada who also worked with Lipseet before his suicide. The narrator is probably the star: French filmmaking prodigy Xavier Dolan. But this is not about him of course, it is about Lipsett. I have seen some of Lipsett's experimental short films and I was not impressed. Same goes for this one. I actually liked the commentary, but from the visual perspective the film did almost nothing for me. That's why I give this slightly over 5-year-old film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.