I suspect that if Sándor Reisenbüchler had been French, say, rather than Hungarian his animated films might be better known today. Panic (1979), like Moon Flight (1975), is another of his short exercises in Pop-art science fiction, a rush through a series of vivid and hyperactive scenes where everything is flattened and stylised, often to a point of abstraction. Panic, as its title suggests, is an especially frenzied piece in which three of the humanoid creatures living on a small island are sucked into a flying saucer occupied by human beings who take their captives to a city where they bombard them with unidentified rays. Whatever the creatures are, the experiments cause them to mutate and grow to a giant size after which they retaliate against their captors.
All of Reisenbüchler’s films were short ones, and all the ones I’ve seen to date follow a similar format: a simple narrative where the vivid graphics are as much of interest as the story. On the graphic level Panic is incredibly complex, composed throughout of very brief shots, nearly all of which show entirely new scenes and bits of collage or other visual invention. As for the story, this is probably the closest thing you’ll find to a Hungarian take on the kaiju film.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Moon Flight by Sándor Reisenbüchler
