INTERVIEW WITH BARRY PURVES

British animator Barry J. C. Purves (UK, 1955) has received the Animac 2024 Animation Master Award for being a master in every sense of the word, a benchmark for others for his extraordinary skill in the subject he teaches, animation.

Oscar and BAFTA nominated director, animator and screenwriter who combines, with mastery and deep knowledge, the most personal animation with stage direction for theatre. Unforgettable short films such as the shakespearean Next, the orientalist Screen Play (nominated for an Oscar), the controversial Achilles (with explicit homosexual scenes) and the more recent No Ordinary Joe are proof of a unique body of work.

1 | Without a doubt, the stop-motion technique is the most amazing of all those in the animated spectrum, or at least that’s how it seems to me since I saw as a kid the Ray Harryhausen’s creatures attacking weak and vulnerable human heroes. What sparked your passion for stop-motion animation and why have you remained faithful to the technique throughout your career?

I love that you are always aware of the technique and that is part of its’ charm. As an animator I love that it is all about your hand, and that the performance is created in your hand, and not in an edit suite. It is a complete and intimate performance. And the craft is just so satisfying.

2) In the conference you gave at Animac you asked the attendees who had seen ballet shows, because for you this is the essential means of artistic expression to understand animation. I find it very interesting that this is your main source of inspiration – which connects your work with that of other great artists in the medium such as Jules Engel or Erica Russel – since it opposes the most widespread trend in the history of animated cinema, which is to have an eye on live-action comedy, especially from the silent film era. What are the elements of ballet that we can find in your short films?

Ballet is one of my many inspirations, but essentially, like animation it is telling stories, characters and emotion mainly through movement, and movement that is not naturalistic but heightens the movement, distills it, exaggerates it, enjoys it. It is not naturalistic and works side by side with music and design, and is about the body flirting with physics and anatomy – just as we do with puppets. Dance simply revels in artifice, finding a recogniseable truth in it. I’m always talking about artifice being honest – the mask that does not conceal but actually reveals.

3) Your resume as an animation director is a mind-blowing rollercoaster of emotions: an Oscar nomination for Next (1989), working for Aardman Animations, seeing Warner withdraw support for the stop-motion work you were developing for Mars Attacks! (Tim Burton, 1996),… Apart from these, what would you say have been the sweetest and bitterest moments of your career for you?

Ah many highlights but one above all. I have loved the character and music of Tchaikovsky since I first heard swan lake when I was four. To make a short film about him was thrilling, but to go to his house and donate the puppet which now sits on the piano on which he composed The Nutcracker – how thrilling is that. A direct connection. Even more so was attending a concert in Tchaikovsky’s house of his music and the whole thing being dedicated to me. There are tears.

I appreciate the ten lifetime achievement awards, but a little part of me wishes they would translate into doors opening for new projects.

4) Name your five animated feature films and five short films favourites of all time.

Ok, this is tricky. Favourite features:

Mary and Max (i’ve never cried so much in a film)
Jason and The Argonauts, obviously
Any film by Karel Zeman.

I’ll leave it at three.

Shorts:

The Monk and The Fish
Tango
John and Karen
Oh Willy
Harvey Krumpet

5) And what are the animators/directors and films that have impressed you the most from your recent trips to animation festivals around the globe?

Simply the ones that have continued to make films. Making a film today is both an event and a huge achievement.

6) What would you say is the main differentiating element of Animac?

I loved mixing with the public and students and the respect and appreciation shown by them. They all had an informed passion about the art.

7) Upon returning from the festivals where you have received tributes in recent months, I read on your social networks that you were determined to make a short film with animated dolls again. A great new for your fans! What do you have in mind?

Oh, I have plenty of ideas – that’s never been the problem. Getting the funding is the problem, also finding producers willing to push and take a risk. But, yes, opening doors, in spite of nearly five decades of experience and a track record of decent work, that’s the tough bit. Before I’m done I would love to direct a feature – several scripts, innovative commercial scripts all ready to go…….you know how to contact me!

Adrián Encinas Salamanca