IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY
Don Hertzfeldt / 2012 / 62 minutes
DETAILS
- 62 min
- Color & B/W
- 1.85:1
FORMATS
- DCP
ME
Don Hertzfeldt’s newest animated film ME is a 22-minute musical odyssey about trauma, technology, and the retreat of humanity into itself. Indiewire has described it as “soul-shaking” and “a triumph”.
IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY
Returning to theaters for the first time since 2012, It’s Such a Beautiful Day has been hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best animated films of all time.
Originally released as three short films over the course of six years, the picture was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand. Built in the 1940s and used by Hertzfeldt on all of his animated films since 1999, it was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world, indispensable in creating the story’s unique images and visual effects. It’s Such a Beautiful Day painstakingly blended traditional hand-drawn animation and experimental optical effects with new digital hybrids, printed out one frame at time and placed under the camera. The film’s signature “split screen” effects were achieved by photographing the animation through small holes that were positioned just beneath the camera lens. One area of the film frame would be individually photographed, the film was then rewound, another section of the frame would be exposed through a different hole, and the process repeated until all elements of a scene were composited together. Towards the end of production, the old camera’s motor began to fail and could no longer advance the film properly, riddling the final reels with unintentional light leaks.
In 2012, the three completed short films about a man named Bill were seamlessly combined to create a new feature film. Upon its original release, It’s Such a Beautiful Day was named by many critics as one of the best films of the year. The L.A. Film Critics Association named it runner-up for “Best Animated Film”.
In 2014, Time Out New York ranked It’s Such a Beautiful Day #16 on its list of the “100 Best Animated Movies Ever Made”.
In 2016, The Film Stage’s critics ranked the film #1 on their list of “The 50 Best Animated Films of the 21st Century Thus Far”.
In 2019, The Wrap named It’s Such a Beautiful Day the #1 “Best Animated Film of the 2010s”.
The same year, Vulture’s film critics ranked it #12 on their overall list of the “Best Movies of the Decade”.
In 2021, IGN’s Cinefix placed it #1 on their “Top 10 Animated Films of All Time” list.
It’s Such a Beautiful Day is currently ranked #67 on Letterboxd’s official list of the top 250 highest-rated narrative feature films of all time.
A Film by Don Hertzfeldt
There is a moment in each installment of Don Hertzfeldt’s masterful trilogy of animated shorts where you feel something in your chest. It’s an unmistakably cardiac event, the kind that great art can elicit when something profound and undeniably true is conveyed about the human condition. That’s when you say to yourself: are stick figures supposed to make me feel this way? In the hands of a master, yes. And Hertzfeldt is to stick figures what Franz Liszt was to planks of ebony and ivory and what Ted Williams was to a stick of white ash: someone so transcendentally expert that to describe what they do in literal terms is borderline demeaning.
One of the great outsider artworks of the modern era, at once sympathetic and shocking, beautiful and horrifying, angry and hilarious, uplifting and almost unbearably sad.
Because he has worked primarily in the realm of simple line-drawing animation for darkly comic short films, Don Hertzfeldt hasn’t gotten nearly the recognition he deserves as one of the most genuinely brilliant filmmakers alive… [It’s Such a Beautiful Day] turns into an astonishing epic of the human experience with mortality and the frailty of the flesh, rendered in the combination of Hertzfeldt’s stick figures, flashes of real-world pictures and a jaw-dropping sound design.
With his humor, darkness, philosophical yearning, and insistence on drawing every line himself, [Hertzfeldt] may be the only legitimate successor to Charles M. Schulz. Except for all the money and fame, of course.
There aren’t many films where the characters and philosophical ideas stay with you for months afterward, but this is one of them.
A truly moving meditation on identity, family and the meaning of life… Hertzfeldt’s magnum opus.
DATES | VENUE | CITY | STATE/COUNTRY |
---|---|---|---|
5-27-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | San Francisco | CA |
5-30-24 5-31-24 | Vidiots (plus live Q&A) | Los Angeles | CA |
5-30-24 6-1-24 6-2-24 | The Beverly Theater | Las Vegas | NV |
5-30-24 | The ShowRoom Cinema | Asbury Park | NJ |
5-31-24 | Athena Cinema | Athens | OH |
5-31-24 | Milwaukee Film | Milwaukee | WI |
5-31-24 to 6-9-24 | Hippodrome Cinema | Gainesville | FL |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Ashburn | VA |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, S. Lamar | Austin | TX |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Mueller | Austin | TX |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Boston | MA |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Denver | CO |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Houston | TX |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Los Angeles | CA |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | New York City | NY |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Raleigh | NC |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | San Francisco | CA |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | St. Lous | MO |
5-31-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Washington | D.C. |
5-31-24 to 6-4-24 | Hollywood Theatre | Portland | OR |
6-1-24 | Carsey-Wolf Center, UCSB (plus live Q&A) | Santa Barbara | CA |
6-1-24 | Cinema Moderne | Montreal | Canada |
6-1-24 6-2-24 | New Farm Cinemas | Brisbane | Australia |
6-2-24 | American Cinematheque, Los Feliz 3 (ME with the World of Tomorrow films, plus live Q&A) | Los Angeles | CA |
6-2-24 | Mariemont Theatre | Cincinnati | OH |
6-4-24 | Philadelphia Film Society | Philadelphia | PA |
6-5-24 | Sun-Ray Cinema | Jacksonville | FL |
6-5-24 6-17-24 | Esquire Theatre | Cincinnati | OH |
6-6-24 | Cinema Moderne (ME with the World of Tomorrow films) | Montreal | Canada |
6-6-24 to 6-14-24 | Kan-Kan Cinema | Indianapolis | IN |
6-7-24 | Mayfair Theatre | Ottawa | Canada |
6-7-24 to 6-12-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Chicago | IL |
6-7-24 to 6-10-24 | Denver Film at the SIE Filmcenter (ME with the World of Tomorrow films) | Denver | CO |
6-7-24 | Varsity Cinema | Des Moines | IA |
6-7-24 6-9-24 6-12-24 | Screenland Armour | Kansas City | MO |
6-7-24 | Belcourt | Nashville | TN |
6-7-24 to 6-20-24 | Rodeo Cinema | Oklahoma City | OK |
6-7-24 6-9-24 | Portland MOA (ME with the World of Tomorrow films) | Portland | ME |
6-7-24 | Strand Theatre | Rockland | ME |
6-7-24 | Digital Gym | San Diego | CA |
6-8-24 | Roxie (World of Tomorrow program with new short ME) | San Francisco | CA |
6-8-24 | The Frida | Santa Ana | CA |
6-8-24 | American Cinematheque, Aero Theater - with live Q&A | Santa Monica | CA |
6-8-24 6-9-24 | The Nightlight Cinema | Akron | OH |
6-8-24 6-10-24 | Metro Cinema | Edmonton | Canada |
6-11-24 | The Loft Cinema | Tucson | AZ |
6-11-24 6-12-24 6-13-24 | Guild Cinema | Albuquerque | NM |
6-13-24 | Speed Museum | Louisville | KY |
6-14-24 | Art House | Eugene | OR |
6-14-24 | FilmScene | Iowa City | IA |
6-15-24 | The Neon | Dayton | OH |
6-15-24 to 6-20-24 | Alamo Drafthouse Cinema | Omaha | NE |
6-19-24 | Kenwood Theatre | Cincinnati | OH |
6-19-24 6-23-24 | Golden Age Cinema | Sydney | Australia |
6-20-24 | Picturehouse Central | London | England |
6-21-24 to 6-27-24 | Pop's Art Theater | Rochester | MN |
6-21-24 to 6-26-24 | The Hollywood Theatre - World of Tomorrow w/ME | Portland | OR |
6-21-24 to 6-27-24 | The Davis Theater | Chicago | IL |
6-23-24 | Harris Theater | Pittsburgh | PA |
6-23-24 | UCR ARTS | Riverside | CA |
6-25-24 | SLFS at the Broadway | Salt Lake City | UT |
6-26-24 | Finsbury Park Picturehouse | London | England |
6-27-24 | Cinema Arts Centre | Huntington | NY |
6-27-24 | The Roxy | Missoula | MT |
6-29-24 | Enzian | Orlando | FL |
6-30-24 | Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace | Sydney | Australia |
7-1-24 | Greenwich Picturehouse | London | England |
7-3-24 | Ealing Picturehouse | London | England |
7-4-24 | The Ritzy | London | England |
7-4-24 | Vancouver Cinematheque | Vancouver | Canada |
7-5-24 | Coral Gables Art Cinema | Miami | FL |
7-7-24 7-11-24 JUST ADDED | Metro Cinema | Edmonton | Canada |
7-7-24 7-14-24 7-19-24 7-24-24 JUST ADDED | Philadelphia Film Society | Philadelphia | PA |
7-8-24 | Revue Cinema | Toronto | Canada |
7-9-24 to 7-12-24 | Gateway Film Center | Columbus | OH |
7-10-24 | Arts Picturehouse | Cambridge | England |
7-12-24 | The Ross | Lincoln | NE |
7-13-24 to 7-15-24 | The Guild Cinema - World of Tomorrow w/ME | Albuquerque | NM |
7-14-24 | The Little | Rochester | NY |
7-16-24 | Paducah Film Society at Maiden Alley Cinema | Paducah | KY |
7-21-24 | The Cameo | Edinburgh | Scotland |
7-22-24 | The Gate | London | England |
7-23-24 | Hackney Picturehouse | London | England |
7-24-24 8-4-24 8-15-24 8-23-24 | Prince Charles Cinema | London | England |
7-31-24 | Circle Cinema | Tulsa | OK |
8-2-24 to 8-4-24 | The Brattle (World of Tomorrow show) | Boston | MA |
8-6-24 | Picturehouse @ FACT | Liverpool | England |
8-7-24 | Tyneside Cinema | Newcastle | England |
8-14-24 | Chester Picturehouse | Chester | England |
8-14-24 to 8-18-24 | Northwest Film Forum | Seattle | WA |
8-16-24 | The Plaza | Atlanta | GA |
8-18-24 9-2-24 9-20-24 | Prince Charles Cinema - World of Tomorrow w/ME | London | England |
8-21-24 | Cinema City | Norwich | England |
8-25-24 | Majestic Theaters Tempe | Tempe | AZ |
8-26-24 | Harbour Lights | Southampton | England |
8-28-24 | Duke's at Komedia | Brighton | England |
8-28-24 | Midlands Arts Centre | Birmingham | England |
8-30-24 to 9-5-24 | Pickford Film Center | Bellingham | WA |
8-31-24 | Austin Film Society | Austin | TX |
8-31-24 | Tallahassee Film Festival | Tallahassee | FL |
9-5-24 | Madison Cinematheque | Madison | WI |
9-11-24 | Bryn Mawr Film Institute | Bryn Mawr | PA |
9-19-24 | Calgary International Film Festival | Calgary | Canada |
11-8-24 to 11-10-24 | Trylon | Minneapolis | MN |