Adam Elliot on ‘Mary and Max’
Mary and Max is my fourth clayography, and up to now, each of my films has explored the life of a singular person. With Mary and Max, I explore two simultaneous biographies. I see this film as the third major artistic leap in the creation of my films over the last ten years.
The Trilogy, Uncle, Cousin and Brother, are all very similar in style, structure and delivery. My aim with those films was to tell very droll, minimal and static, short ‘mini’ biographies that enjoin the audience to see and celebrate the unique qualities of ‘ordinary’ people.
Harvie Krumpet, the next film, was a much longer and thorough exploration of a person’s life. The production values were much higher, the animation more dynamic, and the plot structure more complex. With Harvie, I again aimed to maintain the simplicity of my visual style and again chose deliberately to maintain the single narrator delivering the narrative. And again, the story explored themes of difference, acceptance and loneliness.
With Mary and Max, I hope I’ve maintained my visual style, but delivered the story in a more dynamic way to ensure it maintains the audience’s interest over the longer duration. This film again explores our desire for acceptance and love, no matter how different we are! There is still a narrator, the wonderful Barry Humphries, but to this I’ve added the voices of the two leads, Mary (Toni Collette) and Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
I have always avoided too much self-analysis for fear of making my work too prescribed and constructed. I write from the heart, with a desire for a compassionate connection with audiences. I do not write for a specific niche audience, but rather try to tell stories that are universal. I imagine that I am telling the story of someone’s life to a very large group of very diverse people from many various countries around an enormous campfire. I try to keep everyone engaged by peppering the story with moments of humour and melancholy. I attempt to mix and balance comedy and tragedy; humour and pathos in a rhythmic and potent manner. With each film I try and arouse ALL the senses; not just the ears and eyes! I see that my job is to ‘nourish the audience in a compost of sensory stimulation’.
I have found it very hard to compare Mary and Max to other films. I can’t find anything ‘animated’ that is similar. In fact I find more similarities with ‘live action’ films than animated ones (45 Charing Cross Road, About Schmidt).
My creative storytelling influences are mainly from other art forms. I am inspired by the portrait photographer Dianne Arbus, the performer Barry Humphries, and the cartoonist and philosopher Michael Leunig.
I treat each new film as a blank canvas that I try to fill with original, potent, and often taboo content. I really hope and feel that Mary and Max will push the boundaries and present to the audience something refreshing and different that the animation world has not yet served up.
The film has many dark moments; there is a lot of ‘black’ amongst the colour palette to heighten the mood of the story. There are two simultaneous worlds represented: Mary’s Australian suburban world, and Max’s New York City urban world. Mary’s world is in a brown palette and Max’s is in tones of black, white and grey. Both worlds use spot red to make certain objects more symbolic. I always try to keep the variety of colours to a minimum; this ensures the visual style is strong and acts as a point of difference to the ‘wacky,’ ‘zany’, ‘colour’-filled world of most animated films.
Finally, Mary and Max has far more dynamic camera moves than in my previous films, as a result of working with our cinematographer Gerald Thompson, who is also a motion control expert. Gerald has made the film far more potent with his very fluid and seamless camera moves and lighting design that makes the worlds far more realistic than a conventional animated film. He has applied live action principles to create an original aesthetic.
Why this story….
Max is based on my penfriend in New York, who I have been writing to for over 20 years. He is such an interesting person and the creation of this film will be a testimony to him and the archetypical underdog that so many audiences around the world engage with. He, like Max, has Asperger’s and I have spent a long time researching this syndrome. My aim is to not just enlighten the world to ASPIES, but to demystify the many misconceptions others have about these people (even the so-called experts).
A lot of people say they often feel different; that they don’t fit in. I am one of those people. Even with all the success, acknowledgement and acceptance that has been derived from my films, I often still feel alone and not in tune with the rest of the world. I often feel sad, persecuted and unsure about things; I find the world so often unjust. I truly empathise with the lost and disregarded, marginalised and melancholic. I am drawn to these people and their stories; I cannot help it. I find people so fascinating, from the ordinary to the truly odd. These are the people I relate to; these are the people whose stories I want to hear and want to see on the big screen.
And I KNOW audiences also want to hear these stories of difference; thousands of people all over the world have told me so over the last decade. I have a box in my hallway that contains the hundreds of press clippings, emails, and letters I have received in regards to my work. Nearly every single day we receive fan mail; many of which arrived way before the Academy Award® came our way. We receive moving letters from people with Tourettes Syndrome, Alzheimer’s and depression. These letters are from the young and old, from Sweden to Tokyo. People who’ve watched the films on the big screen, on an airline, at a film festival, on the Internet and even on their phone. They all say similar things, that they were affected in some way watching my film/s. For some it has been life-changing; for others it simply added a bit of relief to their day.
For example, just last week I had a phone call from a woman who said her best friend chose to watch Harvie Krumpet over and over in her final hours before she died from cancer. I am moved to tears so often and am constantly reminded of the power of storytelling. I feel very humbled by people’s responses and feel so lucky I have the ability and opportunity to keep making a difference in people’s lives.
I’m not making films to elicit these reactions; it is real, unasked for and still happening to me every day. I often say if I could, I would make my films for free. No amount of money could ever buy the feeling of sitting with an audience watching something you have given your heart and soul to, knowing that you are not just entertaining them, but also nourishing and moving them. I learnt a while back, that to have a positive effect on your fellow human beings is such a wonderful feeling opportunity and privilege.
So, who knows? Maybe the reason I make my films is purely selfish. Either way, there is nothing else I am particularly good at, and so, for the time being, moving blobs of plasticine around in a slow and expensive manner seems to be my lot.
Production notes
STOP MOTION:
CELEBRATING HANDMADE ANIMATION ON THE BIG SCREEN
Dougal and the Blue Cat Pollux et le chat bleu
Sun 1 Sep 12:10; Sun 15 Sep 15:20
Alice
Wed 4 Sep 18:10; Sat 21 Sep 15:10
Little Otik
Wed 4 Sep 20:15 + intro by musician and Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert; Sat 21 Sep 17:45
21 Years of dwarf studios
Sun 6 Oct 15:30
Coraline
Sun 8 Sep 12:00
King Kong
Sun 8 Sep 13:00 + intro by Douglas Weir, Content Remastering Lead
James and the Giant Peach
Sat 7 Sep 12:10; Sat 21 Sep 12:00
The Pied Piper Krysarˇ
Sat 7 Sep 18:40; Sun 22 Sep 15:00
Anomalisa
Sat 7 Sep 20:40; Wed 2 Oct 18:30
King Kong
Sun 8 Sep 13:00 + intro by Douglas Weir, Content Remastering Lead; Mon 16 Sep 2045
Mighty Joe Young
Sun 8 Sep 15:45; Wed 18 Sep 20:55
Mary and Max
Wed 11 Sep 18:00; Wed 25 Sep 20:35
ParaNorman
Sat 14 Sep 12:20
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Sat 14 Sep 15:40; Sun 6 Oct 12:20
My Life as a Courgette Ma vie de Courgette + Manipulation
Sun 15 Sep 12:20; Tue 8 Oct 18:40
Library Talk: A Study in Stop Motion
Mon 16 Sep 18:30
Stop-Motion Masters + Q&A with Barry Purves, Suzie Templeton and Osbert Parker
Fri 20 Sep 18:10
Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires + Q&A with director Mike Mort
Fri 20 Sep 20:30
The Boxtrolls
Sun 22 Sep 12:00
Kubo and the Two Strings
Sat 28 Sep 11:40
Wendell and Wild
Sun 29 Sep 15:10; Mon 7 Oct 20:40
Missing Link
Sat 5 Oct 12:00
Thanks to Jez Stewart, BFI National Archive
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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