Today marks a fairly frigid start to 2017 in Calgary, but as uninviting as it is outside, that just makes it more tempting to stay in and watch an old animated favourite.
Elli Vuornin’s The Tongueling made the film festival rounds in 2010 (including a screening at the Calgary International Film Festival), and its wintry setting feels like a perfect fit for today. It’s an odd, orally-fixated sort-of-love story, with a distinct visual style and impressively visceral sound design—all the more impressive considering Vuornin was still in art school while making it.
Vuornin hasn’t been too prolific in the half-decade since she made The Tongueling. So far, she’s released two other films: the lovely, odd Sock Skewer Street 8, and Sore Eyes for Infinity, which made its festival debut this past summer (which I haven’t been lucky enough to see yet). Hopefully there’s still plenty more on the way, because she has a knack for making films that stick in the subconscious, in the best of ways.