IFC presents Rooftop Films Short Film Showcase

REVOLUTION OF THE CRABS
(Arthur de Pins | 5:04 | Animation)

Thursday, August 7, 2008 | 1:23 PM

A Rooftop favorite, this short tells the story of a self-defeated Marbled Rock Crab and his species' 120 million years of tragedy.

Revolution of the Crabs is a cute and witty animated short from France about a race of shellfish that have collectively internalized the concept of being trapped in a shell that dooms them to walk forever in the same direction. They are the Pachygrapsus Marmoratus, commonly known as 'depressed crabs.'"

They are likewise fated to meet each other only in passing for all time. Maybe they are this way for a reason; their life paths determined by the place they hatch and confining them to a single line for life. A certain stoicism and pride arises in the minds of these crabs, to account for that which they cannot do by nature: turn. (Or avoid having their legs torn off by toddlers on the beach for that matter!)

But it is not nature that keeps the crabs carrying on in such a way--it seems they are just too dim-witted to turn. When a fateful event causes one crab to turn in a split second of danger, the pride so inherent in the "civil servant" class of crab is offended--this "turn" is no more than a lack of the dignity that the rest of the crabs prize. It is never to happen again.

This clever and delightful animated short is a glimpse into the mind of a crab, but perhaps also a reflection on how stubbornness and pride, and the problems for which we blame nature, are often little more than our own ignorance.

Revolution des Crabes, Arthur de Pins' short film, played at Rooftop Films on June 4, 2005 with Rockaway and Smith & 9th. The short has gained a lot of attention, and is a Rooftop favorite, in addition to winning the Audience award at the 2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and a nomination for the Cartoon d'Or at the Cartoon Forum in Europe the same year, and winning the Chameleon Award for Best Animated Film at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival.

Arthur de Pins is a 2000 graduate of École Nationale Supérieure Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and makes his living as a professional illustrator and cartoonist with a fondness for blocks of bright colors and a super-clean line. His work has appeared regularly in the French men's magazine Max, for whom he does cheeky sex cartoons in a Playboy-esqe vein. He has numerous other films, including L'eau de Rose and the award-winning Geraldine (2001).