The Central Character

Directed by Patricia Gruben

Canada, 1977 (experimental, 16 minutes, black and white)

Image: © Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre

Film Description:
"A woman's attempt to keep chaos at bay by naming, classifying, and ordering her domestic environment. This ultimately results in a total loss of ego and verbal capacity. Through the innovative juxtaposition of printed text, graphics, step printing, and disintegrating soundtrack, [Patricia] Gruben constructs a narrative breakdown that parallels the unconscious patterning of her character's mind."
-- Richard Stanford (source)

Film Description [in French] :
"Le combat d'une femme contre la menace de l'entropie."
-- Jana Vosikovska (source)

(sources)

Quotes about The Central Character

"The Central Character (1977) evinces a heterogeneity of visual styles, through the use of printed text, still photographs, blueprints, superimposition, line drawings, stop printing, rotoscoping, and various levels of exposure or saturation of the image."
-- Kay Armatage (source)

"Patricia Gruben used animation to solve narrative problems in [...] The Central Character, a film about groceries, kitchen floors, and entropy, using a printed text as well as diagrams, stock footage, and step-printing of live action. By the end of the film the woman is central to the cosmos."
-- Barbara Halpern Martineau (source)