BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION Thesis NOW IS THE ENVY OF ALL OF THE DEAD: AN INTRODUCTION TO DON HERTZFELDT, THE ANIMATOR by CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL WEI B.A., Brigham Young University, 2013 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts 2019 ProQuest Number:13887178 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ProQuest 13887178 Published by ProQuest LLC ( 2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 © 2019 by CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL WEI All rights reserved Approved by First Reader Roy Grundmann, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Film Studies Second Reader John W. Hall, M.S. Master Lecturer in Film “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” - Emily ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am drawn to films about young suffering (Billy’s Balloon), the pain of nostalgia (World of Tomorrow), the inevitable perpetuation of generational trauma (It’s Such a Beautiful Day), and the profound precariousness and absurdity of having been created at all (Genre; Rejected). One might then assume that my childhood was rough—that my love of such films is how I exorcise personal and familial demons—but this is not the case; my upbringing was generally happy. For this reason, the first people I must acknowledge here are my parents. My father has been an inexhaustible source of wisdom, instilling in me a sense of wonder about the world and about the human imagination. And my mother has been an inexhaustible source of love, instilling in me a work ethic and a humanistic understanding of moral, spiritual, and ethical considerations (in other words, a consciousness of what we owe to each other). I believe it is because of the culmination of these inheritances that I was ultimately drawn to films like Hertzfeldt’s. Next, I acknowledge my thesis advisors at Boston University, Roy Grundmann and John Hall. I am deeply indebted to their knowledge of film scholarship and to their understanding of cinematic and televisual history; more importantly, I am indebted to their consistent patience and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge my cohort of fellow students—Richanjali Lal, Cecilia Pardo, Cayce Campbell, and Laura Brown— who provided boundless emotional and logistical support as well, even while wrestling with their own large, ambitious projects. Finally, of course, it is imperative that I acknowledge the animator, Don Hertzfeldt. May he continue to shock, inspire, and confound his viewers for many years to come. v NOW IS THE ENVY OF ALL OF THE DEAD: AN INTRODUCTION TO DON HERTZFELDT, THE ANIMATOR CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL WEI ABSTRACT This thesis is a primer on the experimental independent animator Don Hertzfeldt, whose filmography—described by one critic as “a singular universe of stick figures in crisis”1—has for more than two decades been engaging some of the larger questions of post-millennial existence, particularly with regard to consciousness, temporality, and death. First, I will briefly introduce who Hertzfeldt is as an auteur (where he comes from, where his primary interests lie, and what his impact has been); second, I will provide an overview of the historical context in which his oeuvre should be placed (i.e. the history of animation and of experimental cinema); third, I will closely analyze his work, examining questions of style and narrative, starting from his student films and continuing to his more recent films; and fourth, I will explore some of the philosophical implications of recurring Hertzfeldtian motifs and themes (particularly with regard to consciousness, temporality, and death) before concluding. 1 Ehrlich, David. “Don Hertzfeldt on ‘World of Tomorrow Episode Two’ and Expanding Upon the Best Short Film of the Century.” IndieWire, 17 November 2017. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Who is Don Hertzfeldt? ........................................................................................... 1 Don Hertzfeldt’s Filmography ................................................................................. 2 The State of the Research ......................................................................................... 3 A Brief Outline......................................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER ONE: MEETING DON HERTZFELDT ......................................................... 7 Biographical Background and Career Summary ..................................................... 7 Hertzfeldt’s Philosophy.......................................................................................... 11 Hertzfeldt’s Impact ................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER TWO: DON HERTZFELDT IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT ....................... 19 Animation............................................................................................................... 19 The Phantasmagoric Roots of Cinematic Animation ......................................... 19 Gertie and Other Pioneers .................................................................................. 22 Mickey Mouse and Homer Simpson .................................................................. 25 Other Historical Influences ................................................................................ 32 vii Experimental Film and the Avant-Garde ............................................................... 36 Dada .................................................................................................................... 36 The City Symphony ............................................................................................ 40 Recent Experimental Film and Media Influences .............................................. 42 CHAPTER THREE: THE FILMS OF DON HERTZFELDT .......................................... 45 The Student Films (1995–1998) ............................................................................ 45 Ah, L’Amour ...................................................................................................... 45 Genre .................................................................................................................. 48 Lily and Jim ........................................................................................................ 49 Billy’s Balloon ................................................................................................... 51 The Short Films (2000–2014) ................................................................................ 53 Rejected .............................................................................................................. 53 The Animation Show .......................................................................................... 54 The Meaning of Life ........................................................................................... 56 Wisdom Teeth .................................................................................................... 58 Clown in the Dumps ........................................................................................... 59 Feature Filmmaking (2006–2012) ......................................................................... 60 It’s Such a Beautiful Day ................................................................................... 60 The Episodic Shorts (2015–2017) .......................................................................... 66 viii World of Tomorrow and The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts ................... 66 CHAPTER FOUR: UNDERSTANDING DON HERTZFELDT .................................... 70 Hertzfeldt on Consciousness .................................................................................. 70 “Being-as-being” ................................................................................................ 72 “Being-as-being-heard” ...................................................................................... 75 “Being-as-being-with” ........................................................................................ 81 Hertzfeldt on Temporality ...................................................................................... 85 The Chronological and Kairological Arrow(s) of Time ..................................... 86 An Alternative Model: Eisensteinian “Plasmaticness” .....................................