Have you ever seen a cartoon made in Eastern Europe? OK, have you ever seen a cartoon made in Eastern Europe and not had the same deer-in-the-headlights, slack-jawed, “WTF?” reaction as Krusty the Clown when unveiling “Worker and Parasite?” One last question: have you ever seen a weird Eastern European cartoon not unlike “Worker and Parasite” and said, “There’s potential for something cool here?” I don’t know who you are; I certainly have never had that thought. But this film is for you.
The titular Ruben Brandt (voice of Iván Kamarás) is less collector and more psychotherapist. He is currently suffering from very vivid nightmares about getting sucked into world-renowned artwork and being attacked by the creatures he finds there. For instance, Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus lures him in and while Ruben stands upon the iconic clamshell wondering where the Hell Venus got off to, a tentacle grabs him and pulls him under, suffocating the man as might Ursula the Sea Witch if Disney films were R rated. So if you’re following along, the psychotherapist is in need of personal psychotherapy. And if that thought doesn’t make you smile, you may as well give up now.
Parallel to the world of Ruben Brandt are his patients, all crack art thieves. How, exactly, does one psychologist corner the market on unique high–end art thieves in need of counsel? Look, if you’re gonna ask questions like that, this film will baffle you no end. One of his charges is quite literally 2-dimensional (“My mother was three-dimensional, my father was one-dimensional,” the thief explains. “He was a point?!” “No. He was a line.”) The man worries that a high-fat diet will cause him to lose the inability to slip effortlessly under doorframes in museums. (Btw, animating one character as 2D when the rest are 3D is quite a trick.)
Ruben’s newest client is Mimi (Gabriella Hámori), a stylish Carmen Sandiego for adults. Mimi is a kleptomaniac, which impedes her heist effectiveness. The film opens with a marvelous chase; Mimi, it seems, has been hired to lift the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, but instead nicked Cleopatra’s Fan in an antechamber on the way to bigger game. When the alarm sounded, she hadn’t the ability to escape with more than the smaller item. So if you’re following along at home, our two main characters are a psychotherapist with a severe dream psychosis and a professional thief impeded by her own kleptomania. Fair to say, you’ve got my attention, Ruben Brandt.
The best part of this tale is not the part where Ruben’s patients come together to steal the paintings causing Ruben’s nightmares; the best part is the animation itself – odd, stunning, often cubist reflections of reality. Every major artwork described is re-imagined in this animation –which is wonderful on its own—and yet the people in the film are even better: big jawed, multi-toned artistic representations in their own right. The film neither makes explanation nor apology for why several characters have three and four eyes or why its titular hero wears two neckties for 80% of the film. I haven’t been this floored by animation since Loving Vincent; I would happily promote Ruben Brandt, Collector for cinematography alone.
Every year at the Oscars, the animated feature category features, like, three films you know: the Pixar, the Disney, and the Sony/DreamWorks, and then the category is rounded out with one or two foreign cartoons, always lacking in at least one major facet of standard animated film. Ruben Brandt, Collector is better than those films. Yeah, like so much foreign animation, there aren’t a ton of laughs here, but- following the examples of Miyazaki– when the animation is so clever, the film doesn’t have to be a riot. This is an adult film; kids will find this one weird and possibly disturbing. Of course, adults will probably find this film weird and disturbing, too, but those with a taste for animation will enjoy the ride.
♪I fear there’s something in The Kiss, oh geez
Now I am threatened by Monet‘s Lilies
Guernica’s bull is trying to tear me apart
Who’s next? That velvet Elvis I bought at K-mart
Listing from the art. Yeah, it’s gonna get me
Listing from the art. I’ve got to get free♫
Rated R, 96 Minutes
Director: Milorad Krstić
Writer: Milorad Krstić
Genre: You thought Lego Movie 2 was hard to follow? Hold my beer.
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Me
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Don’t show this cartoon to a child. Just don’t.
♪ Parody Inspired by “Listen to Your Heart”
