[Jazz on Film] - Begone Dull Care (1949)

Begone Dull Care (1949) is a visual music animated film directed by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. Using drawn on film animation, McLaren and Lambart paint and scratch directly onto film stock to create a visual representation of Oscar Peterson's jazz music. The film is produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

" Begone Dull Care is one of the great classics not only of animation but also of jazz on film. This 1949 short captures with joy and remarkable precision the spirit of the jazz music performed by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Director-animators Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart applied colours directly to the clear film with paint brushes of various sizes, stencil brushes, sprayers, crumpled paper and different textured fabrics.

As an example of film-jazz fusion, Begone Dull Care has captivated writers expert in both genres. In an interview about his 2000 book Jazz et Cinema, author Gilles Moullic says, "the most beautiful short on jazz is truly McLaren's Begone Dull Care"…. In it, McLaren understands very well that jazz-cinema is whatever 'happens' on screen. He worked a lot on a form of movement which is drawn out over the entire duration of the piece. There are flashes, breaks and splits in the drawing as well as, simultaneously, a continuous rhythm, a necessary pulse.” This National Film Board of Canada production won seven international awards, including prizes from the Venice and Berlin film festivals, and, more than 50 years after its creation, still appears on some critics Top 10 lists.

Begone Dull Care is one of 60 films directed and animated by Norman McLaren during his carreer at the National Film Board of Canada [AVTrust] "