We all know what boredom is. To a small child, spending Sunday after Sunday with relatives puts it on the map. The small boy here is prodded and pushed and expected to do something when there is nothing to do. His fixation on a bear puts some soul in this, but overall, it's a rather dull film.
6 Reviews
Sunday
CinemaSerf31 March 2024
A youngster who lives in a town routinely shaken to it's foundations by the passing freight trains is a rather reluctant visitor to church on Sunday. This is followed by the ritual visit to his grandparents where his family all congregate and he is left largely to his own devices. He likes to put coins on the railway track and have the trains flatten them but on this particular day an encounter with a peckish polar bear changes things up a bit for him. I did quite like the darkness of the humour - some rather ravenous crows scavenging on some road kill, but the standard of the animation is just a little too basic and the narration more mumbling than speaking. Still, it's quite an innovative exercise and is worth ten minutes.
Just another manic Sunday?
Horst_In_Translation27 July 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Really, Academy? I wonder what was going through their heads when they nominated this 10-minute movie for an Oscar. Not only is it infinitely inferior compared to the eventual winning film (which was good, but not great), but "Dimanche" is just not a good film at all. All the humor in here is basically supposed to come from animals dying randomly all the time. But it's not entertaining at all. The only somewhat funny scene I thought was the comparison between the crows talking and the party guests talking. That's it though. The characters are uninteresting, especially the protagonist, the story is almost non-existent and same goes for the comedy. Really a bad film and the only thing I can say in Patrick Doyon's favor here is that he is not experienced at all. Anyway, I am definitely not sad that he has not done another movie since 2011. Then again I am usually not too big on NFB films, but this one here is still a travesty nonetheless, no matter who produced it. Highly not recommended and one of the worst Oscar-nominated films of the new millennium.
Wow.....this left the theater audience quite annoyed...seriously.
planktonrules19 February 2012
For the last several years I have gone to see the Academy Award nominated shorts--both live action and animated. This year is a first for the animated category in that as we sat watching, I overheard a lot of murmurs about how bad the nominees were. The folks watching seemed, at times, genuinely mad at the choices. Fortunately, after three very sub-par films, the final three were excellent and it seems pretty clear that the race is between "La Luna" and "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore". And, like the last couple years, following these nominees, they showed some animated shorts that were not nominees but were sort of like runners up--and the folks I talked to preferred these films to several of the nominees.
"Dimanche" ("Sunday") is a film sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada (the other being "Wild Life"). If it had not been nominated, I probably would be MUCH kinder in my review. The animation was novel (though poor) and the story went absolutely no where. While it didn't bother me, I overheard several in the audience who were angry as the film featured a lot of needless animal cruelty. Now I am not against cartoon violence (and I loved "Skylight" which was also shown that day and it featured exploding animals!), but this seemed pointless--as did the film in general. While a few bits and pieces were interesting (such as the bear and the nice sepia tones), the whole was not in the least. Frankly, I have no idea what the Academy saw in this one. I am being brutally frank, but the audience seemed to agree with me.
"Dimanche" ("Sunday") is a film sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada (the other being "Wild Life"). If it had not been nominated, I probably would be MUCH kinder in my review. The animation was novel (though poor) and the story went absolutely no where. While it didn't bother me, I overheard several in the audience who were angry as the film featured a lot of needless animal cruelty. Now I am not against cartoon violence (and I loved "Skylight" which was also shown that day and it featured exploding animals!), but this seemed pointless--as did the film in general. While a few bits and pieces were interesting (such as the bear and the nice sepia tones), the whole was not in the least. Frankly, I have no idea what the Academy saw in this one. I am being brutally frank, but the audience seemed to agree with me.
Underrated
rgcustomer12 February 2012
This short isn't so much about plot as it is about a character, and a feeling.
The boy is the centre of the short, and we see the world as he sees it. His town is a victim of the industrial age. The factory is closed and for sale ("à vendre"). The train, taller than the entire town, zooms through without stopping, causing everything to vibrate and fall off the walls. The non-human animals don't fare very well here. Fish get their heads chopped off. Bears are living trophies on the wall.
The act of placing a certain Canadian coin on the track to be flattened by the passing train has unexpected significance.
I think it's wonderful. I found all of this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts to be 7/10 or 8/10, and this is one of the 8's.
The boy is the centre of the short, and we see the world as he sees it. His town is a victim of the industrial age. The factory is closed and for sale ("à vendre"). The train, taller than the entire town, zooms through without stopping, causing everything to vibrate and fall off the walls. The non-human animals don't fare very well here. Fish get their heads chopped off. Bears are living trophies on the wall.
The act of placing a certain Canadian coin on the track to be flattened by the passing train has unexpected significance.
I think it's wonderful. I found all of this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts to be 7/10 or 8/10, and this is one of the 8's.
Of childhood, boring Sundays and a child's imagination
llltdesq23 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This short was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead:
The plot here is pretty simple and basic. It's about a little boy who is very bored on a slow, quiet Sunday. He places a coin down on the railroad tracks to flatten it out just before he goes to church and then over to the home of relatives for Sunday dinner.
The boy is bored and his imagination takes over. The thing I like most about this is that almost everything is exaggerated. Houses shake and bounce as the trains go by, a mounted bear head comes to life and you see its body outside next to the house. The bear has an important place in events toward the end, when the boy places a second coin on some tracks.
Children have often got a different view of reality than adults do (Bill Watterson made quite a nice living doing Calvin and Hobbes simply because he got that in spades). This short succeeds to the degree it does even with rather crude drawings and backgrounds because there are a few moments when it grasps that and has fun with the idea. The crows are hilarious.
This short can be seen at the NFBC website and is also available on DVD from the National Film Board of Canada. It's well worth watching. Most recommended.
The plot here is pretty simple and basic. It's about a little boy who is very bored on a slow, quiet Sunday. He places a coin down on the railroad tracks to flatten it out just before he goes to church and then over to the home of relatives for Sunday dinner.
The boy is bored and his imagination takes over. The thing I like most about this is that almost everything is exaggerated. Houses shake and bounce as the trains go by, a mounted bear head comes to life and you see its body outside next to the house. The bear has an important place in events toward the end, when the boy places a second coin on some tracks.
Children have often got a different view of reality than adults do (Bill Watterson made quite a nice living doing Calvin and Hobbes simply because he got that in spades). This short succeeds to the degree it does even with rather crude drawings and backgrounds because there are a few moments when it grasps that and has fun with the idea. The crows are hilarious.
This short can be seen at the NFBC website and is also available on DVD from the National Film Board of Canada. It's well worth watching. Most recommended.
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