Harpya

Harpya is a 1979 short Belgian animated film written and directed by Raoul Servais.[1] It stars Will Spoor, Fran Waller Zeper and Sjoert Schwibethus. The film won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Its mix of horror and black comedy has given it a cult following.[2]

Harpya
Directed byRaoul Servais
Written byRaoul Servais
StarringWill Spoor
Fran Waller Zeper
Sjoert Schwibethus
Music byLucien Goethals
CinematographyRaoul Servais (animation)
Walter Smets
Release date
  • 16 May 1979 (1979-05-16)
Running time
9 minutes
CountryBelgium
LanguageNone

Plot

A mustachioed Belle Époque-styled man (Spoor) is walking down a dark street, when he hears the cries of a woman (Waller Zeper) as she is being strangled in a fountain. The man knocks out her assailant (Schwibethus), only to discover that she is in fact a harpy, a winged white bird, larger than an eagle, having the (bald) head and breasts of a woman. Fascinated, the man takes the beast to his home to shelter and feed it. He soon discovers the harpy's insatiable appetite. The harpy eats all his food, then eats his parrot, and begins eyeing her host with a sinister stare. One night, when the man attempts to escape, the harpy overwhelms him and eats his legs.

Later, once the harpy is asleep, the man crawls out of his house, joyfully finding French fries to eat. The harpy flies out of the house and discovers him, eating his snack. The desperate, enraged man then attempts to strangle her. Upon hearing her cries, a police officer comes to the rescue and saves the would-be "victim", knocking the man to the ground; the harpy then looks up at the officer in glee.[3]

Production

Servais animated the film using optical 35mm color front-projection of his characters onto a multiplane filmed, black velvet background.[4]

The eponymous Harpy of the film

Servais stated that: "Harpya was my first attempt to combine live action images with animation. The live actors had to be incorporated in graphical backgrounds, for which I had to invent my own technique at the time. The result was rather satisfying, but very time consuming, because it was limited to a one person's job. I guess Harpya will remain the only film ever made in this technique." [5]

Reception

It has earned critical praise by international critics and experts as one of the greatest animated shorts of all time alongside being one of the best Palme d’Or-winning shorts ever made.[6][7][8] [9]

Awards

See also

References
  1. "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1979 -". cartoonresearch.com.
  2. Raoul Servais-Lambiek Comiclopedia
  3. The Forgotten: Raoul Servais' "Harpya" (1979) on Notebook-MUBI
  4. Raoul Servais: An Interview-AWN
  6. The Other Palme d’Or: 6 Marvelous Cannes-Winning Shorts from Years Past-IndieWire
  7. The 10 Best Short Films in Cannes History-MTV
  8. 250 Great Animated Shorts: The List-IndieWire
  9. The Olympiad of Animation:An Interview With Fini Littlejohn-AWN
  10. HARPYA-Festival de Cannes
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