Street Musique (1972) User Reviews

Ryan Larkin's Street Musique is a wonderful collage of animated images

[tavm · 10/10 · 25 November 2008]

Just watched this on the National Film Board of Canada site where they have about 300 of their material presented for your enjoyment. Having previously viewed and commented on a couple of shorts associated with animator Ryan Larkin, I was excited when Street Musique was presented on the NFB site twice in both French and English title form (otherwise, it's the same film). Starting with black-and-white live-action of a fiddle player and a mandolin player performing on a downtown sidewalk, Larkin then does abstract line drawings on white that become images that are very hard to describe. He then does some watercolor (at least that's what I think it is) images that are likewise. All this is done to the music of those two players that matches the drawings perfectly. Nothing else to say except for anyone who loves abstract animation, I highly recommend Ryan Larkin's Street Musique.

Pretty good if you like this sort of thing...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 31 August 2009]

This film was sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada and, like many of the Board's films, is not commercial in nature but artistic. Because of that, it's unlikely that the average viewer will like or care to see this short and it's also experimental in nature. While I appreciated its artistry, I myself didn't find the film particularly interesting.

The film begins with some street musicians ('Buskers' for all you Brits out there). As they dance and perform, they suddenly morph into animated characters that play music and dance about throughout the film. The styles and colors of the animation are constantly changing, but they tend towards the very abstract and often look like splashy watercolors.