"If all my films were to be destroyed except one, I would want that one to be Neighbors because I feel it has a permanent message about human nature." -Norman McLaren

... and here I am, just watching the shadows once I realized that the production was time-consuming and naturally-lit.

This got dark real fast, but I cant deny brilliance when it slaps me in the face

This aged better then it should’ve.

This film was made before editing staff were given credit for their works, but I know for a fact that my grandpa was lead editor for film splicing in this picture. Consider how hard it would have been to make a person glide across the ground in 1953, and try to tell me this isn't art.

One thing I noticed (and I'm not sure if it is intentional or not) is how the men died and were buried on the opposite side of where they came from. Interpret that how you will.

Absolutely remarkable that this was made in 1952. Simply remarkable. McLaren was truly the godfather of stop-motion animation, as well as of experimental cinema more generally. Just insane!

This film will only ever age even better so long as humanity exists.

This scared the daylights out of me as a kid, still relevant. Well done NFB.

Norman McLaren was one of very few artists who knew how sound looks.

This was brilliant. EONS ahead of its time for 1952 and still as relevant as ever.

Neighbours (French title: Voisins) is a 1952 anti-war film by Scottish Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Produced at the National Film Board of Canada in Montreal, the film uses pixilation, an animation technique using live actors as stop motion objects. McLaren created the soundtrack of the film by scratching the edge of the film, creating various blobs, lines, and triangles which the projector read as sound. (Wikipedia)

I recorded this film from TV to VHS video tape, about twenty years ago. Of course the video cassette was lost and I'd forgotten about the film. I was just watching another short film called "Everything is a Remix" by Kirby Ferguson. At the end of Episode Four (all four episodes were edited together in the version I saw) I noticed a short clip of this film, which prompted me to do a little search to find the original. Great to see it again. And the soundtrack is fantastic, too, made using old production techniques, that a woman called Daphne Oram went on to develop with her Oramics machine. I'm sure you can get a version of her machine for the iPhone, now. This then leads me back to the Ferguson film (Everything is a Remix) ... Well worth a watch. (copy, transform, combine).

I can only imagine how shockingly violent this was at the time it came out, given the Looney Tunes-esque antics in the first half. It's still pretty shocking even today.

The flower wanted to be with both of them, you know.

i swear the similarity between this and the majority if tiktok skits i’ve seen is astounding. seventy years later, and stop motion jumping sped up is still peak comedy.

They really knew how to send a message back in elementary school. I got this and Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery inside a couple of years in the early 70s.

I should show this to my dad who is a land surveyor. It’s his job to determine where the property lines are. Anyone who tries to measure their own property is setting themselves up for disaster.

So strange to see how this filmmaking technique began and think of how it has been used since. Animation is such a recent phenomenon, it's easy to forget we are still seeing it grow from infancy. Much respect for the trailblazers

"Lose your love when you say the word 'mine' '", as in the Neil Young song.

its like a fight between charli chaplin and buster keaton

absolutely superb, and more relevant than ever...

this traumatised me since i first saw it in public school...

Mclaren would scratch experimentally and directly on the film stock's soundtrack to create the sound and music. He was an absolute genius.

I like the fact that he DREW the music/soundtrack effects directly onto the film stock.

I've loved this film since the 1950's :)

Amazing. One of my favorite shorts, ever

Thanks for posting this. I first saw this in the sixties. The message is just as impactful today!

A masterpiece i have never forgotten

aplaudi de pé em meu escritório como se estivesse em uma amostra de arte. Eu não acredito que estou assistindo isso pela primeira vez apenas em 2024. O mundo deveria conhecer isso

This seriously feels like a GMod skit.

Two gods of space-time fight over flower that gets you high.

My new favorite short film

Amazing short film! I came across it, and couldn't remember where I had seen it (at the time I didn't watch it, just saw the title), but the idea from what I'd read about it came back to my memory very clear: two men fighting over something. This reminds me of an excellent book, a Novelle from a Gottfried Keller, 'Romeo und Juliet auf dem Dorf'.

This film is so creative and at the same time it has such a fundamental message about the human race, the way we deal with possession, our relations with others and our instincts. Can anyone recommend me similar artists to Norman McLaren?

Saw this in college years ago, but forgot the title. I've finally found it!

The pure and sinister form of human nature.

Mom: Go play with the Neighbor's kids The Neighbor's kids:

I first saw this film in 16 mm back in 1967. It has remained with me today (2018) an a film which made XLNT use of stop motion photography.

So this what inspired Star Wars, dope!!!

How are these so amazing and deep?

A press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 stated that "Documentary Short Subject winners Benjy (1951) and Neighbours (1952) are among a group of films that not only competed, but won Academy Awards in what were clearly inappropriate categories. Benjy, directed by Fred Zinnemann and narrated by Henry Fonda, is the fictional tale of a crippled boy. The film was used as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital... Norman McLaren's Neighbours, which today would compete in the Animated Short category, used 'pixelation' - animation using living people - to create an allegory of war."

This is so incredible, the full animation is a master piece. Thanks to Roberto Andrade (a.k.a. Tio Rober) for this recommendation.

I remember watching this in an experimental film class and remarking that it reminded me of a Boobah storypeople skit... and it does certainly have the same energy albeit it also has a much much darker meaning.

Very good very nice👍

This video made me laugh in school

I saw this in HIgh School in the '70s and I never forgot it. I think it is the genesis of the battles between Peter Griffin and the chicken in Family Guy.

that was savage 😂😂😂

Very good Vidio pls make more!!!!!!!

The last time I saw this was in Sunday school around 1960. I was probably 4 years old.

sencillamente maravilloso

Yep they were fighting so long they forgot what they were fighting for.😢

Der Film hatte eine wichtige Thematik

I remember my mom calling the library where she rented it from and complaining 😂😂😂😂

Guter Film. Krasse Thematik

How is amazement related to the creativity of the director of this short film?

This movie is very good for René Girard anthropology.

The first GMod animation

In 1952, Canada had fought in WW2 a few years ago and was curently fighting in Korea.

That escalated quickly...

so good wow i definitely love this original soundtrack better too

Sometimes I fight with my neighbor over some weed too.

Reminds me a lot of the animated short "Balance".

My Mom Shared This On Facebook I Love Vintage Films Even Though I Was Born In The 2000s

El esfuerzo que llevó hacer esto uffffff

this is thee most disturbing and traumatizing film we've/i've ever seen as a kid/children..they shoulda warned us..i still see the horrible violent image of the soccer kicked baby..omg!..thanks for the memories NFB....lol :P

So funny, though its long before but still meaningful

Good Film He He■□■

مبدع استمر الله يوفقك

I REMEMBER SEEING THIS VIDEO FROM THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA IN GRADE FOUR.

My teacher showed me this short film!!

"Don't kick the baby." -South Park

Coool

Psychedelic.

It’s a tie at the end

...this FEELS like a Kids in the Hall sketch o -o

War krass cool

And people call them WAR HEROES

2:34 I like this scene jump on that was funny make me laughter.

Bravo!

You see how the film is symbolic , fighting over ownership of natural resources, which belongs to neither side, can start a war

The short that inspired Extreme to create the music video for Rest In Peace

This is a 21 th a century meme

Is that the original soundtrack? I just watched this film but it had another music so i wanto to know if this is from the original version.

Yo y mi amigo cuando nos gusta la misma chica

Todo esto me recuerda de alguna extrañan manera al juego arcade Po.Li.Ru.La.

"I was inspired to make Neighbours by a stay of almost a year in the People's Republic of China. Although I only saw the beginnings of Mao's revolution, my faith in human nature was reinvigorated by it. Then I came back to Quebec and the Korean War began. (...) I decided to make a really strong film about anti-militarism and against war." - Norman McLaren I can't imagine a worse footnote than that.

Pau esta no es la pelicula

Hey neighbour, heeeey neighbour. That's how it starts.

Based on Writer S.Ra Suggestion I amwatching this

😮😮

Flowey, the flower

Big time

I wish for a million moths ... Wait, wrong movie.

Acid trips be like:

"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures,"James 4:1-3 There is hope... "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," John 3:16.

This is so funny

Poet Robert Frost said: good fences make good neigbours.

2:36 I swear this effect was used in another film.

Redmond and Blutarch Mann when the entire state of New Mexico