In Focus - Storms rage inside a mind in Stormy Night

The criteria for selecting a film each week can be extremely varied. For example, this week, as my phone buzzed constantly from updates on a winter storm thanks to the SaskAlert app, I gravitated towards a film that, at least from the title, would be appropriate for the hard charging winter that was supposedly about to come down on us. Stormy Night (dir. Michele Lemieux), which won Best Animation in 2004. was selected entirely due to the title, as the weather service warned of a stormy night descending on Yorkton.

The storms in the film, unlike the one that we were warned about, are largely internal, as a young girl ruminates on the nature of mortality and the universe with her faithful dog by her side. There is, eventually, a thunderstorm, but it’s more about a general existential anxiety than any real natural disaster. That anxiety could, of course, be caused by the anticipation of the storm – the film begins with wind, and kids can imagine a much greater storm after the wind starts – but is largely independent of the storm that actually takes place. The kid begins by wondering of the concept of the infinite, moves through confusion about the human body and finally ends up ruminating on mortality.

Heavy thoughts, for a child, but the film is dedicated to the perspective of a child so it’s far from dour or dark. It’s a genuine reflection of the internal struggles of a curious child trying to make sense of the world.  The film keeps pushing along as the kid bounces from one topic to the next, trying to understand the universe in order to stave off sleep or cope with whatever is going on outside her window.

It’s also a great excuse for some experimental animation, trying to make a visual out of the more abstract ideas that the kid is bringing forward. The image of a man vacuuming a mind clean is a clever way to express the kid’s understanding of reincarnation. Skeletons playing sports make as much sense as anything when you’re trying to discuss a child’s idea of the afterlife. There are many striking images here, played with a sense of whimsy thanks to being built around the curious mind of a child and their incomplete understanding of the world around them.

I recognized a bit of myself in Stormy Night, having once been a curious kid with an active imagination. I recognized some kids I know, who also had similar probing questions when they were confronted with something they didn’t understand that adults can’t explain.

It’s not a film that intends to explain anything itself, but to instead visualize questions, to capture the colliding fronts of curiosity that make the storms in a kid’s head. And, in the end, express the joy when those clouds clear out again.