LE PROCESSUS

source:blinkvideode
Made in 2000 at the prestigious Supinfocum, Le Processus by Philippe Grammaticopoulos and Xavier L’Hermuzière is a visually riveting eight minute animation in black and white.

A troop of identical men clad in top hats and double breasted greatcoats march in unison through a constantly revolving door. They march in identical ways, in a curious clockwork, jerky movement, symmetrically aligned, and in great numbers, flooding the streets and corridors. One unlucky fellow has his hat knocked off as he marches through the doors and, due to the crowd, is unable to retrieve it. Suddenly conspicuous now, his naked head a beacon for his comrades, he is forced to flee.

A statue, as identical as any other of the men only larger, is his target as he attempts to scale the monument in a vain attempt to obtain the helmet. Such an action is not to the liking of his massed ex-colleagues whose brollies are suddenly called into action. To a varied soundtrack by Ivo Malec, Nine Inch Nails and Parmegiani we follow the mounting turmoil of the fugitive, marching against the tide, suddenly cast out of his society, and the disruption his change wreaks on his world. It is a classy and artistic treatment of the theme of militarism and conformity, an Orwellian world that will linger in the memory. The wood-cut, etched style is particularly effective.
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source:imdbcom
In a stark, black-and-white, computer-animated world, identical men resembling woodcuts march in perfect unison down the street. The procession is formed by men coming out of buildings and by men with open umbrellas dropping from the sky. They are dressed identically, in the same coats and the same tall hats. But one man, to his horror, suddenly becomes different. He loses his hat in a revolving door. Now his head is naked. He is different. Some of the other men stop their marching to turn to him and point. The man escapes them by running on top of the procession, on top of the heads of every other man. Soon, he is in front of a tall statue, desperately trying to remove its hat and take it for his own. Eventually, the man finds there is only one way to become like everyone else again: remove the hat of some other man and make him the one who is different.