An old man watching the world pass by one day decides to find his happiness. Sitting all day in his room, looking out the window, sleeping under the clock and hearing it tick awakens the man to the search for his lover. Hidden among her letters to him are series of photographs that lead him around the city, looking for the next location as shown in her pictures. Passing through abandoned buildings, old parts and stadium; the old man finds her finally at the beach that concludes to a dramatic ending.
Using stop-motion teachnique, Theo Putzu captures a simple story of yearning and loneliness through a dreamer’s eyes. The old man, while seemingly contended in his life alone, is pushed by a pulsing need to look beyond the glass windows that detained him in his aging years. The music works like a pendulum that counts every waking second that the old man spends as he travels across town chasing after olden images of her. Putzu reportedly used approximately 4000 pictures beautifully edited together, like the man’s memory of his wife, in paler shades of grey and muted colors to illustrate the sentimentality of his tale.
Paper Memories has won Best Short Film in Corto Corto Mon Amour (Italy, 2010) and Festival Schermi Irregolari (Belgium, 2011), Audience Award in Disposable Film Festival (USA,2011), Special Jury Prizes in Miglio D’oro Film Festival (2011), Trani Film Festival (2011) and more accolades in numerous festivals around Italy.
Putzu was born in Sardinia, Italy and is now based in Barcelona, Spain. He studied Production Design in Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence before taking up his Master in Directing Film in Spain’s Centro de Estudios Cinematograficos de Catalunya. He is a self-confessed dreamer. More of his work here.
Filed under: Vimeo Shorts, Paper Memories Stop-Motion Theo Putzu, Paper Memories Theo Putzu Martin Ortega Granella Miguel Marin, Theo Putzu Paper Memories Shortfilm
