Blog # 5

Miguel Rueda’s films focus on animation. Some of Rueda’s films featured short clips from famous shows in popular culture throughout the years, such as ‘Batman’; Pop music was playing during these clips. These short clips of compilations of different moments in film, which are both life action and animation, show also what influenced Rueda’s cinematic style. The cinematic style of these animated films also are distinctive. One short film in which Rueda showed was called ‘La Ballerine’. La Ballerine was about a deceased ballerina coming back to earth for one night every few years. She meets a man who works in the theater she danced at, and she tells him her story. At the end of the story, the man dies as well and they are reunited. This film could be seen as a dark comedy. What’s interesting about this film, and his other animated film ‘The Trumpeter’, is that there is no audible speaking in them. All of the characters technically speak, but their words are revealed in text; Music is playing for the whole duration of the films as well. This is a consistent cinematic technique used in all of Rueda’s films. It is similar to a silent film from the 1930s in the way that the execution is quite similar; Even the framing of the text boxes in ‘La Ballerine’ was the same as framing of texts during the 30s. ‘La Ballerine’ had a stylistic side similar to that of a 30s film as well in terms of theme and tone of the story. It also contained symbolism; The crow was a looming presence in the film, as it was representative of death. The color scheme in this film was interesting as well; The colors, such as the red sky, also added to the tone as well.