Memoir of a Snail

A few months ago on a rainy afternoon Don and I wandered into Melbourne's ACMI (formerly Australian Center for Moving Images). At that time, most museums in Australia and New Zealand were free making it a cheap place to escape the rain.

As the name suggests, the museum is dedicated to Australian films, something I am not that familiar with. One exhibit, though, caught our eye: the making of "Memoir of a Snail," a stop motion film made in Melbourne during the pandemic when the government enforced Draconian efforts to keep COVID-19 from spreading.

Through the glass we could see the sets which featured lots and lots and lots of snails to the point of pure clutter. It was impossible to see the vision behind the stuff. 

Still, though, I was curious. I made a mental note to look for it in the States, then promptly forgot to do so with the hubbub of the holidays and inauguration. For some reason, though, I searched Google for showtimes around me. There was ONE -- Tuesday at 7 pm at the Readingn Cinema, about 45 minutes away.

The rest of my family was busy, so I went alone. 

Still unsure of what to expect, I sat in the reclining leather seat, and adjusted my tray (maybe I should have studied the food options more). The film was charming. The accents reminded me of Australia. It takes place in Melbourne and in the small town of Canberra.

"Life can only be understood backwards, but we must move forward," is the tagline of the movie.

It was a small, but enthralled audience. I frequent live theater much more often than filmed, so I laughed when I thought things were humorous. I worried I crossed a movie theater line until I heard others laughing and reacting to the movie. No one was rude, just engaged. At the end, all ten of us stayed to watch the credits. Just as I was getting up to leave, I noticed something else on the screen. If it was live theater, I'd call it a talk back. It was an interview between the creator (director Adam Elliott) and Australian director George Miller (best known for the Mad Max series). 

I would describe the movie as "claymation," until Adam said that term is under copyright, so he uses "clayography" -- a combination of clay with biography to describe his stop motion film.

It takes 25 frames PER SECOND to feel realistic. Indeed, it is easy to forget the actors are really pieces of clay.

Adam talked about how the film has very little dialogue because of its low budget and moving mouths realistically is expensive. That's also why their feet are not shown when they walk. Instead there is a voice over actor describing what is happening.

He really likes to bring viewers through a wide range of emotions. I know I cried at the end, and laughed at some of the dark humor.

The main character, Grace Pudell, is a hoarder. The inspiration for this film came after he discovered three sheds of things his father hoarded in his lifetime. He was originally thinking the animal would be a little bird, but changed that when something in pop culture came out. He toyed with different animals, finally deciding on snails because of their mathematical shape. Afterwards, he realized it was the perfect animal because snails can only move forward. They cannot go backwards. 

A note from IMDB, all of the characters are based on people Adam Elliott has met in real life.

Nominated for one Oscar for best animated feature, this R-rated movie is available on streaming services. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen as it wouldn't be the same on my laptop.