The Girl Who Cried Pearls - Stop Motion Movie Trailer

The Girl Who Cried Pearls




The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a hauntingly beautiful stop-motion short set in early 20th-century Montreal, following a poor boy who discovers a mysterious girl whose tears transform into luminous pearls. As he begins to sell the pearls to escape poverty, his act of love turns into exploitation, unraveling a haunting tale of greed, innocence, and moral decay. Crafted with exquisite handcrafted puppets and miniature sets, the film’s aesthetic blends gothic realism with lyrical surrealism.



Lavis and Szczerbowski: We began many years ago with a simple idea that came to us out of the ether (It seems the more you write stories the more they come to you) We pictured a sorrowful girl crying pearls every night as she sleeps, and a spying boy next door, who alone knows the pearls value, who must choose between love and greed. That concept seemed like a wonderful opportunity to create magic. We try not to forget that making films—especially stop-motion films—is the work of illusionists, creating life out of nothing. It takes a lot of time, but that time is forgiven by the fact that you are creating magic. If magic were easy, everybody would be a magician.

What did you learn through the experience of making this film, either production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creatively, or about the subject matter?

The Girl Who Cried Pearls is our first animated film with dialogue. We struggled early on with how we would have our puppets speak. There are so many techniques available in stop-motion, from plasticene mouths to clockwork and replacement faces, and none of those seemed right for the material. In the end, we chose—for the majority of the film—to use static, unmoving faces. We were shocked at how well they were able to convey character and emotion without blinks, mouths, or expressions. Although it makes sense, puppets have been working this way for millennia before cinema and animation.

Can you describe how you developed your visual approach to the film? Why did you settle on this style/technique?

The decision to use stop-motion flowed directly from the story. Hand-crafted, stop-motion puppetry is the perfect medium for fables, and for the audience to believe in miracles. Stop-motion turns adults into children — and like children, they will accept a tale told by puppets as the absolute truth for as long as they are watching.

SOURCE: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/awards/the-girl-who-cried-pearls-chris-lavis-maciek-szczerbowski-256551.html