aiff_program09_interior.xp 3/2/09 3:55 PM Page 44
Idiots and Angels Man Maid
78 minutes a73 2008 a73 USA 86 minutes a73 2008 a73 USA a73 In Competition
Thursday 9:20p
a73
Saturday 9:20p
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Sunday 6:20p Thursday 12:30p
a73
Friday 3:30p
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Saturday 6:30p
Sunday 9:30p
a73
Monday 12:30p
Director/Screenwriter/Animator: Bill Plympton a73 Producers: Biljana Labovic, Bill Plympton
a73 Editor: Kevin Palmer a73 Music/Composers: Hank Bones, Didier Carmier, Rachelle Garniez,
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Chris Lusvardi a73 Executive Producers: Laurence Lusvardi,
Corey Allen Jackson, Nicole Renaud a73
idiotsandangels.com
Carla Tange a73 Producer: Jeanine Rohn a73 Cinematographer: Alex Vendler a73 Editors: Tom
Costain, Jeff Groth, Chris Temkin a73 Music/Composer: AM, Tom Hiel a73 Principal Cast: Steve
tures
AIFF Artistic Achievement Award recipient Bill Plympton Hytner, Jane Lynch, Justina Machado, Sara Rue, Phillip Vaden, Amanda Walsh
a73
directs this animated dark comedy about a man’s battle for his
manmaidmovie.com
f
e
a
soul. Angel, a selfish and morally bankrupt man, wakes up one
morning with wings on his back. He tries to hide them, but It’s not easy being a hotel cleaning man in a cowboy town. Just
everyone at Bart’s Bar, where he hangs out, discovers them and ask male maid Vincent who has an odd passion for cleaning
ridicules his bizarre appendages. rooms and a knack for making a mess of relationships. This
sweet, funny film tracks the misadventures of a second-
As Angel tries to adapt to the wings, he thinks they give him
generation cleaning man at a historic hotel in rural Oregon.
greater opportunities to abuse others. But the wings have a will
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of their own, and they foil all of his greedy plans. He It’s surprisingly dangerous work, as our hero can testify. Not
desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, but only is he ridiculed in public but he occasionally gets roughed
eventually finds himself fighting those who view them as their up by local toughs who aren’t partial to a man doing “ladies
ticket to fame and fortune. Using no dialogue—only sound work”. When a hostile developer threatens to knock down his
effects and music, including Nicole Renaud, Tom Waits, and beloved hotel in favor of a “mixed use space”, Vincent is forced
Pink Martini—Idiots and Angels is a surreal story of romance to take action. If he can rally his friends and save the hotel, he
and redemption in the battle for good and evil. [adult content, might even salvage his crippled courtship with the hotel’s
violence] charming manager, Torry. Man Maid was filmed in Redmond,
Oregon, and features the music of John Doe. [adult content,
Bill Plympton language]
Director’s Statement
Chris Lusvardi
The first recollection I have of the concept
Director’s Statement
was an event in 2005 when I was walking
with a student and he asked me what my Man Maid was literally born at a Portland
next feature would be about. I declared, off- Oregon hotel during a holiday visit to my
handedly, that it would be about an angel wife’s family. I had long been searching for
who didn’t want his wings, and as we discussed the idea, I an original idea I could write and direct for
really got to like the concept. That night, in my hotel room, I a reasonable budget. That idea decided to
started to explore the dramatic possibilities of a reluctant angel. arrive at 4:00 A.M on New Year’s day! I
jotted the title on a piece of hotel stationary
My short film Shuteye Hotel was a short rehearsal, an
near the bed and showed it to my wife when she woke up that
experiment done in the new style of Idiots and Angels.
day. Had she not laughed at those two words our journey could
Because this film has no dialogue, I wanted music to play
have ended right there, but she did, and it didn't.
throughout—almost like a long opera—or an extended string of
I spent the next year back in L.A., writing the script, raising the
music videos. The look of the film is very Eastern European—
funds and assembling an incredible cast and crew. Originally
something like what Jan Svankmayer might make, or David
the film was set in Montana, but as fate would have it we shot
Lynch if he made animation—very dark and surreal.
the entire film on location at an historic hotel in Redmond,
Oregon (where we all lived as well). Making this movie has
Filmography: See p14
been both incredibly tough and incredibly rewarding.
Filmography: Directorial Debut
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