Feb 18, 2009 Art of the Title Comments (8)
Sita Sings the Blues
“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless; like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.” – Bruce Lee
The opening title sequence to Nina Paley’s Sita Sings The Blues features Indian goddess “Sita” with the curves of planets in her animated beauty.
The film deftly weaves the Indian Ramayana -with a respectful-but-no-less-sharp MST3K shadow puppet treatment, the heartbreaking failure of Paley’s own marriage, and the preordained 1920′s jazz of Annette Hanshaw -one of the first great female jazz singers who could swing. Each story breathes a kind of refracted understanding in divine continual proportion. It is impressive.
Once the sequence bursts into effulgent, fuzzy light showers to Todd Michaelsen’s sitar-and-synth-stabbing beat, we are introduced to characters of the Ramayana representing only one of the styles of animation found in the film. Too, the human heart, beating fierce at the center from which lilts Mother Earth.
Please note that this is a heavily awarded film, championed by Roger Ebert, that endures delayed distribution due to archaic copyright laws. A possibility that remains is online decentralized audience distribution. If you are interested in learning more please visit:
