Jan 3, 2025

Oscar Nominee Interview: Director Anna Samo Talks Favorite Shots from “The Mean Clavier” (Exclusive Interview)

Cartoon Brew invited the makers of the 15 films nominated for this year's Academy Awards for Best Animated Short to share their favorite shots from their films and why. Each film is listed in the order the materials were received.

This piece features Anna Samo's “Wild Clavier Music Solo”.

Director Samo animates on toilet paper and tells the story of an artist struggling to cope with the uncertain and chaotic world around her. How does one continue to perform or create animation while war rages somewhere else? The unique approach of “The Wild Mean Clavier Pieces” leverages Bach's timeless music and his legacy of animation directly on 35mm film.

Samo recently spoke with Cartoon Brew about making the short film. Below, she shares her favorite shot from the film and discusses its significance:

This shot is at the end of the film and combines many of the elements that appeared earlier in a way that, despite the violence and destruction, allows the audience to feel the triumph of music and art.

The camera is positioned very close to a machine that moves a strip of toilet paper with drawn animation. The shots are full of fast-paced action, ignited by emotional outbursts of music. A soldier transforms into a tank, and shortly thereafter, a man stumbles and nearly falls, and a grand piano bursts into flames and breaks. Next, the pianist, who has not been able to approach the instrument throughout the entire film, is shown opening the top lid of the undamaged grand piano and finally sitting down to play the instrument.

The image of the burning grand piano was in my mind very early in the production of The Wild Mean Clavier Pieces. It was one of the few drawings I made in my sketchbook during the making of the film. I wasn't sure exactly where this drawing belonged, but I knew it was important. As I did more research, I realized that the burning piano had many stories to tell. Scottish artist Douglas Gordon created a very striking video installation of a grand piano burning in a landscape that was once the border of the Roman Empire. The title of his piece is none other than “The End of Civilization.” Many contemporary musicians have composed for and performed on pianos that have been set on fire. I also learned about the Air Force tradition of burning pianos in a ceremony to commemorate pilots who have died in the line of duty, and there are many curious myths about the origins of this tradition.

There is something incredibly dramatic and complex about the image of a burning piano. As well as containing feelings of destroyed culture, violated lives, and barbarism, this image is a metaphor for the wild emotions that can no longer be contained within.

It was important for me to give the film a hopeful ending. So it felt right to place the image of the musician sitting and playing the grand piano open, right after the image of the burning instrument. I like the idea that music cannot be destroyed, that even if a piano burns down, another one will be played again. The grand piano here is like a phoenix being reborn in flames. But it is a very fleeting victory. And recently, another thought has crossed my mind: perhaps the piano must be burned in order for the musician to have a story to tell through his music.

Read other entries in this series: