Vive la Rose

Bruce Alcock

2009

Canada

06'22"

Stop motion, Paint animation shot outdoors

“Vive la Rose” is the moving tale of a tragic love story set in Newfoundland, in which a simple man raises his voice in melancholy farewell to his beloved. The film is based on a song by local musician Émile Benoit. Director Bruce Alcock finds the ideal setting for the song’s raw emotion: a fisherman’s abandoned cabin.

In this spectacular animation filmed outdoors, items familiar to those who live by the sea – fish hooks, shells, driftwood, and rocks – lend the film an unusual physicality to match the rough voice and singular language of Émile Benoit. “Vive la Rose” embraces an innovative structure, dividing the screen into three parts, each mirroring an aspect of the song.

From Curators

“Vive la Rose” represents a time elapsing by outdoor shooting and time-lapse photography. The work depicts the scenery gazing from a cabin and memory in the dray with objective shots and long-take perspective. The screen of the film is divided into three separate parts: real objects, animating images, and handwritten poetry. By the position of camera shooting and drawings transferring from excellently computing moving images, the work expresses strong emotion to the beloved in the way of natural craftiness with the computer technique aiding.

Bruce Alcock

Artist Introduction

Born in Newfoundland, Bruce Alcock studied the tuba and comparative literature before moving to Barcelona, where he began learning about animation with animator Dirk Van de Vondel. Returning to Canada, he founded Cuppa Coffee Animation in Toronto. He then moved to Chicago, where he continued directing commercials with his next production company. Tricky Pictures, for five years. Later he settled in Vancouver, where he founded the production company Global Mechanic. As well as his commercial work featuring a multiplicity of techniques, Alcock makes internationally outstanding personal films: “Wrong Number Phone Message” (2003), “At the Quinte Hotel” (2005) and “Vive la Rose” (2008), the last being his first partnership with the NFB (National Film Board of Canada).