Everything Will Be OK

"Everything Will Be OK" is a 2006 animated short film by Don Hertzfeldt. It is the first chapter of a planned three-part story about Bill, the main character. Hertzfeldt is currently in production on the second film in the series, titled "I am so proud of you", which is due for theatrical release in 2008.

"Everything Will Be OK" won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award in Short Filmmaking, a prize rarely bestowed on an animated film. To date it has won 36 awards, including the Grand Jury Award for Best Film at the London International Animation Festival and the Lawrence Kasdan Award for Narrative Film from the Ann Arbor Film Festival. [ [http://www.bitterfilms.com Bitter Films news page] ]

Despite the film's short running length, "Variety" film critic Robert Koehler named "Everything Will Be OK" one of the "Best Films of 2007". [ [http://filmjourney.weblogger.com/discuss/msgReader$3949 filmjourney.org : Robert Koehler's Best of 2007 ] ] The film was extremely well received by critics, describing it as "essential viewing" and, "simply one of the finest shorts produced over the past few years, be it animated or not." [ [http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/animationshowvol3.php DVD-Verdict review] ] [ [http://www.bitterfilms.com/ok.html Reviews] ]

Outside of theaters, the movie is currently available as a limited edition DVD "single", exclusively from Hertzfeldt's website, http://www.bitterfilms.com . The DVD features an extensive archival area of deleted scenes, Don's production notes, sketches, and layouts, as well as a hidden Easter Egg that plays an alternate, narration-free version of the film.

ynopsis

The main character and a few of the film's scenarios were developed from short comic strips and sketches Don did in 1999-2000 for his website while working on other film projects. The film tells the story of Bill, a lonely everyman whose daily routines, perceptions, and dreams are all illustrated onscreen via multiple split-screen windows. Bill's mundane life, narrated in several humorous anecdotes, very gradually grows dark and terrifying as he appears to be suffering from a possibly fatal mental disorder. It becomes harder to tell what is a hallucination and what is not. The split-screen windows and layered audio tracks slowly battle for attention on screen and begin to smother Bill (and the audience). The film illustrates the struggle many people have with mental illness, in the inherent difficulty in deciding which muddled thought or distracted perception is most important and should be paid attention to. Meanwhile, suddenly faced with the possible end of his life, Bill struggles and philosophizes over his seemingly meaningless existence.

tyle

The story is told with Don Hertzfeldt's signature style of animated stick-figure line drawings. However, in this film, there are often multiple frames on the screen at once, each in an irregular white enclosure, all against a background of pure black. Some animated still photographs are also incorporated inside certain windows, as well as a handful of the colorful special effects and experimental film techniques that Hertzfeldt first utilized in his 2005 film, "the Meaning of Life". As with all his films, no computers were used in creating the picture; all of the multiple window effects were captured in-camera on his 35mm animation camera.

There is no dialogue spoken directly by the characters. The film and Bill's thoughts are entirely narrated in great detail. The deadpan narrator refers to Bill only in the third person and describes what all the characters say.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0887734|title=Everything Will Be OK
* [http://www.bitterfilms.com Bitter Films Home Page]
* [http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/moviereviews/2007/070209/ 4-star review from the "Chicago Reader",]