"I'm a bad seed. Pure evil. I shouldn't be here" says Diddybob, the morbid man who would like to commit suicide, but there's no bullets left in his gun.

He's keeping the company of a rather satanic fellow, keeping themselves warm around a campfire. His demonic pal (played by director/animator Rosto) shows him a map of how to reach a hole in the sky. "A hole in the sky? You're shittin' me."

Thus begins The Rise & Fall of the Legendary Anglobilly Feverson (2002), a 35 mm ten-minute animated film. It's the tale of a man or at least his head who tried to reach for God & found Him to be more vicious than divine. It was made in the Netherlands, though it's in English.

A totally wild-looking bird-flappy engine is dragging a basket toward the great eyeball hole, & in the basket is a kvetching severed head who is the legendary Anglobilly. The head bursts open like a box & all its memories tumble back to earth as photographs, while animated figures appear ghost-like amidst the photos.

Harrassed by flies, the head is still riding upward in the basket.

If this all sounds pretty strange, it's actually even stranger, with much to-do about the insects, the cursing or cursed eyeball, floating pin-up girls surrounding the head's basket, an attentive head in the cloud. "And remember that we are dealing with a natural superpower here."

Rarely has avant garde animation been so beautiful & appalling at the same time. It's an absolutely riveting little film. It seems somehow to mean something though probably it does not. It's like George Melies for a new generation, acid punk underground psycho art.

A skeleton with halo, demonic face, & wings leads an army of its kin, these being the children of the sky, showing the head the way into the hole of the sky, the pupil of the giant eye-sun. The pupil turns into a tooth-filled demon's mouth that growls "Fuck off!" & breathes fire.

A headless bony body stands in fire in the attitude of christ. The head in the basket, loose ropes for arms & legs, is caught in the flames.

This amazing film, praised by Terry Gilliam, was based on a song by the director which you'll hear at the end behind credits. It also has its roots in an online graphic novel called Mind My Gap but is a stand-alone film without knowledge of the novel.


The soundtrack of The Extra-Ordinary Light-Bulb (2006) begins with what sounds like electronically altered caterwalling in a jazzy artful manner, very strange & cool. I frankly love it as music & think it could stand alone, but it also fits this short film wonderfully.

The film itself at about three & a half minutes is a silent movie, using Melies-esque camera tricks but in a more avant garde manner. It's almost too surreal to describe sensibly.

In the glare of a flickering incadescent bulb, a man removes the bulb from its socket & it seems to empower him to all sorts of gravity-defying antics & time/space dysfunctions.

The director may well be nuts as he seems to have deposited this film at youtube.com numerous times as though once weren't enough, & the little bit of description he gives is so nonsensical one would suppose English his second language, though he's from Hull, England. When asked for details of his personal life, he claims to be the son of a selkie, i.e., his father's seal-wife.

Crazy or not, it's a fascinating art-short & deserves to be viewed, & has had a number of showings at universities, festivals, & artfilm venues.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl