As you gaze at cellular organisms scuttling across the screen, animalistic plants writhing their way sun-ward and tadpoles gestating you start to get a feel for the character of the person taking such obsessive care over the production of these images. As hobbies go… microcinematography is pretty intense but, what joy in these ever-present but unexpected glimpses of life.
Composer and Big Tinderstick, Stuart A. Staples said in his
post-match Q&A that having originally been fascinated by Smith’s images he
came to want to tell the story of their creator through this strange and
powerful micro-cinema. So, odd as it may seem, Minute Bodies turns out to be a musical biography of the most
excellent F. Percy Smith Esquire a man from North London who photographed moss
growing in his spare time. A man who, in the interests of scientific discovery,
wasn’t afraid of working with small animals and animation.
Staples co-directed the montage of films and tried to stay
true to any structures contained within them even though there was some editing
used, for example, to create spectacular effects by superimposing and
cross-cutting fast-growing crystals: indoor micro-fireworks!
The project took three years of stop-motion musical
production between Staples and co-producer David Reeve before the full Tindersticks
were convened to record the music.
Staples and the ‘sticks have form having composed no less
than six soundtracks for Clair Denis including the marvellous White Material - which I’ve been
listening to all day – and there’s a box set with all the scores on it. This is
a musically-curious band who long outgrew the limitations of being just a rock
group.
So, musically restless band meet obsessive-compulsive
film-maker…
Between 1909 and 1943 Percy Smith made a sequence of
extraordinary documentaries after the former clerk for the British Board of
Education had impressed producer Charles Urban with a close-up of a
bluebottle's tongue.
From The Acrobatic Fly
(1910), The Birth of a Flower (1910),
The Strength and Agility of Insects
(1911) to Life Cycle of the Newt
(1942) and, my favourite, Life Cycle of
the Pin Mould (1943) Smith kept his subjects closer than any film-maker in
history.
Take that pin mould: it looks just like a pin as the shiny
top grows upwards but then the surface frosts over as the latter stages of its
inexplicable life-cycle kick in. It’s like watching alien lifeforms and the way
Smith creates his narratives gives his flora and fauna personality. That’s
pretty exceptional.
Triffids grow wild next to a ticking clock, strange organic
pools consume each other and a spider is force-fed a fly - no animals were
harmed in the making of these films but plenty of insects were. From the micro-scope
views to extreme close-up all is alien: plants are relentless serpentine
stranglers, wrapping their way with deceptive guile around other stems and
moss, crystal and mould grow with urgency to smother and enclose.
Staples’ music takes care not to do the same and works
sympathetically with his subject to create that new narrative. The music is
restrained as you’d expect from such experienced soundtrack performers who
deftly combine elements of post rock, electronica and emphatically-acoustic.
More than anything, the score matches the mood and carries
the unmistakable joys of these quirky explorations. When nature isn’t enough,
Smith used stop-motion animation to make his point and there’s a delightful bee
that pops up to demonstrate the art of pollination – it looks straight at the
camera: ready for his close-up Mr Smith.
It is only at the end when we see Smith, his profile
close-up to a rat and then full-on with four of the rodents climbing around his
neck. One nips his throat, he smiles and calmly pulls it back: in his element
with his beloved nature; respecting his subject matter.
Smith said that he aimed to provide "the powder of instruction in the jam of entertainment"
and tonight Mr Staples did the same. Takes one to know one I suppose!
 |
| Frank Percy Smith at play |
Minute Bodies was
playing as part of the Sonic Strand for the BFI London Film Festival 2016 and
is something you should not overlook if given the chance.
There's more detail on the Tindersticks' website and the trailer is on their news page here.
The BFI DVD featuring a number of Smith's films, Secrets of Nature, is available from their online and actual shop.
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