VILNIUS - I take the staircase up to the attic of an Old Town building to try and get a good glimpse at the life of Antanas Janauskas, the famed pioneer of Lithuanian animation. The amiable looking and gray, wavy haired man is already waiting for me with a smile by the time I reach his door.
After the usual polite phrases and handshakes, Janauskas leads me through a long corridor of his studio, which I quickly realize is part of his home. Wherever I turn my eyes I see huge piles of paper filled with doodles, books and paint.
While he hurriedly goes off to prepare some of his "special" coffee, I sneak around a little and have a look at some of the animation festival posters hanging all over the place, and which, from the multitude of languages they are written in, clearly come from far and wide.
As one of the most respected animation artists in the country, Janauskas constantly receives invitations to submit his work to various international festivals.
At last he returns, bringing two tiny cups with super-superior strong Turkish coffee with some sugar on top, which is not allowed to be mixed in, and places them on his work desk next to some sketches in progress.
Janauskas then explains that his drawing technique hasn't really changed all that much since his first animation short, "A Girl and the Devil" in 1967.
Minimalism is the essence of Janauskas' work 's no more lines than are needed for sense, no more colors than necessary for effect. The story is what really matters.
"A Girl and the Devil" was about a girl planting flowers, which are later ruined by the devil. Unfortunately the film could not be produced with sound because at the time the Lithuanian Film Studio didn't have the equipment to combine color animation and sound.
Having learned his lesson, Janauskas then created a black-and-white cartoon called "Initiative" in 1970. This was the first Lithuanian cartoon to be played in cinemas as well as the first homemade cartoon to be screened at international film festivals.
The five-minute film tells the story of two characters and a palm tree on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. One day the two little characters notice a plant starting to grow on their island. Excited to have another living thing on their deserted island, they start to speculate as to what it could be. Is it the most beautiful flower in the world? Is it the best fruit tree on earth? Their hopes are wonderfully high.
As the plant slowly starts growing they do everything they can to help nurture it. They cut down a palm tree, which had given them shade from the scorching sun, just because it blocks the budding plant's sunlight. But after many such self-defeating good intentions, the two of them realize they have been sadly deluded the entire time. The plant turns out to be nothing more than a useless, prickly cactus.
After the success of "Initiative," the Lithuanian Film Studio, where Janauskas used to work, contacted the relevant Moscow authorities several times to try and get permission to produce more cartoons. The response was hardly encouraging, however: "You have no equipment for that… you haven't studied in Moscow… you should construct a new studio first." Etc, etc.
Not to be deterred, Janauskas continued drawing and producing short pieces by himself, which were used as segments in documentaries. After independence in 1991, Janauskas moved into his studio in the Old Town, where he has been producing about one short film a year.
As we sip on his superstrong Turkish coffee, Janauskas starts complaining to me about his teenage next-door neighbor, who, he grumbles, is constantly disturbing his peace and sense of solitude. Janauskas explains that his young neighbor is always listening to extremely loud music. He can't believe that someone can actually be that inconsiderate. It occurs to me how well these remarks illustrate the whole mood of Janauskas' most recent films.
He is a dedicated moralist who criticizes certain people for their foibles and follies; especially those that make the innocent suffer in consequence.
In one of his films he mocks smokers for their inability to admit that they make the rest of the world smell bad. In others, Janauskas criticizes women for wearing just that little bit too much make-up, drunk drivers and those TV addicts that are glued to their "square pet."
This lonely pioneer can often be seen quietly strolling around the streets of Vilnius. Always alone, always observing, and always mulling over some good ideas with which to tease people in his future films.
