Norman McLaren & Evelyn Lambart: Lines Horizontal (1962)

“An experiment in pure design by film artists Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. Lines, ruled directly on film, move with precision and grace against a background of changing colors, in response to music specially composed for the film.”

… and what I’ve always loved about this film is the way it makes me think of every long train journey spent looking out of windows; at the rails beside me, at the power-lines above me, and at the whipping by of fences. This is the animation that first awakened me to the potential of animation and music working so closely together to turn a set of simple elements into something in turns mediative and thrilling. What starts flat soon becomes three-dimensional. What begins with the illusion of speedy side-ways travel ends with rolling ups-and-downs and closing-ups and opening-outs. Lines Horizontal proves we’re never just idly looking, we are instead transforming what we see.