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''The Overcoat'' ((ロシア語:Шине́ль), ''Shinyel'') is an unfinished animated feature film that has been the main project of acclaimed Russian director and animator Yuriy Norshteyn since 1981. It is based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol with the same name. Around 25 minutes were completed by 2004.〔Shenderovich, Viktor. ("Все свободны" - разговор на свободные темы ). Radio Svoboda. July 4, 2004. Accessed on: Nov. 22, 2008.〕 The unfinished film has been shown publicly in several exhibitions of Norshteyn's work around the world and clips of it have been included in a few documentary films about Russian animation and culture. On March 13, 2007, Norshteyn stated that he planned to release the first 30 minutes of the film with a soundtrack into theatres by the end of 2007.〔(March 13, 2007 interview with Yuriy Norshteyn ) (Ночной полёт. Юрий Норштейн.) (video, at 15:30 and 24:00), Культура, 13-03-2007. Retrieved on 29-06-2007.〕 However, , the film remains unfinished, its production time of over thirty years is the longest for a motion picture in history. ==History== Upon finishing his film ''Tale of Tales'' in 1979 Norshteyn decided that the next project for his small team (consisting of himself as the animator and director, his wife Franchesca Yarbusova as the artist and his friend Aleksandr Zhukovskiy as the cinematographer) would be an approximately 60-minute-long film based on Gogol's short story ''The Overcoat''. Norshteyn has said that he considers ''The Overcoat'' to be as important a work of literature for him personally as one of the chapters of the Bible.〔Третьякова, Мария. ("Шинель" как глава Библии ), ''Российская газета'', June 22, 2005. Retrieved on October 18, 2006.〕 By 1981, when work on the film began, Norshteyn had been working at Soyuzmultfilm (the main Soviet animation studio) for 13 years and had worked on some 40 films and directed or co-directed six. Progress was slow, with many interruptions (Norshteyn estimates that only about three years of work were actually done). Norshteyn says that Viktor Tinyaev (Виктор Тиняев) helped him during this period. In 1986, with only 10 minutes of the film completed, Norshteyn was fired from the Soyuzmultfilm studio in which he had worked. This was despite the fact that his films had gathered many international awards, and ''Tale of Tales'' had been voted the best animated film of all time by a large panel of international critics in 1984. With the help of Rolan Bykov, Norshteyn managed to set up his own animation studio in his home. There, he and his team continued to slowly work on the film. Funding has been sporadic and has come from many different sources, including the Savings Bank of Russia (Sberbank) and TNK oil company. A few minutes were shot under the Soros Fund before 1999.〔Мaкcимoв, Андрей. (Стенограмма программы "Ночной полет" ). July 12, 2001. Retrieved on October 13, 2006.〕 Norshteyn has been known for refusing funding from certain sources. He refused to accept money from Mikhail Shvydkoy, the Russian Minister of Culture, saying "one cannot take money from those who don't care about you."〔Боccарт, Алла. (Юрий Норштейн: Камера крупно-крупно приблизилась к человеку ), ''Новая Газета'', June 2, 2003. Retrieved on October 13, 2006.〕 He also refused help from Nick Park's company Aardman Animations, accepting from them only a few boxes of lightbulbs.〔Wright, Jane. (Tales by a Russian master ), ''Camden New Journal'', February 16, 2006. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.〕 Production came to a temporary halt on November 17, 1999 with the death of cinematographer Aleksandr Zhukovskiy (Александр Жуковский). The loss was crippling for Yuriy Norshteyn — he said of Zhukovskiy that he was the only person who ever saw exactly eye-to-eye with him both as an artist and as a friend. Nevertheless, by 2001 production had resumed with a new cinematographer — Maksim Granik (Максим Граник), one of Zhukovskiy's students. Production soon halted again — this time for three years. Norshteyn spent a year and a half making a 3-minute animation for the introduction to ''Spokoynoy nochi, malyshi!'', a popular Russian nightly show for young children to watch before they go to bed (his segment was taken off the air in the summer of 2001; the show moved to another channel while the copyright for the sequence stayed with the old one).〔Железнова, Мария. (Покемоны могут спать спокойно ), ''Новая газета'', August 13, 2001. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.〕 He also spent nine months working on a 2-minute sequence for the Japanese collaborative film ''Winter Days'' (released in 2003).〔Габриадзе, Резо. (Юрий Норштейн. Человек, ушедший в гоголевскую "Шинель" ), ''Russian Madison'', September 18, 2006. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.〕 Norshteyn said that this sequence required as much work as a 10-minute film, and that his work on it influenced ''The Overcoat'' and vice versa (the sequence contains a scene with Bashō searching for ticks in his cloak which is similar to a scene in ''The Overcoat''). In a July 4, 2004 interview, Norshteyn said that 25 minutes of ''The Overcoat'' had been shot.〔Боccарт, Алла. (В студии Юрий Норштейн ), ''Радио Свобода'', June 4, 2004. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.〕 The studio stopped working on the film for nearly a year while Norshteyn worked to release his two-volume book, ''Snow on the Grass'', released on August 10, 2008.〔(Одушевление черточек ). ''Время''. August 28, 2008. Retrieved on: October 25, 2009.〕 To this day (at least as of March 2013〔(Юрия Норштейна обидел Первый канал ). ''Km.ru''. 2013-03-07.〕), Norshteyn is still working on the film—his ardent perfectionism has earned him the nickname "The Golden Snail".〔Klimenko, Alexei. (Golden Snail of Culture ), ''The Moscow News'', November 19, 2002. Retrieved on October 14, 2006.〕 Although he has been offered chances to leave Russia, Norshteyn believes that finishing his film in "circumstances approaching comfort" would be impossible.〔 ''The Overcoat'' has surpassed ''The Thief and the Cobblers record of the longest production time for a motion picture in history when it continued unfinished through 2012. In a February 2014 interview, Norshteyn revealed that profits from sales of his recent books and licensing deals are going into supporting his work on a new film, but refused to confirm whether that film is ''The Overcoat''.〔(«Ежик мне изрядно надоел, вот и все», — Юрий Норштейн — о правильном гламуре, Олимпиаде и экзистенции ). ''RBC Daily''. 19.02.2014〕 In April 2015, Norshteyn said in an interview that most of his time is being spent working on ''The Overcoat''.〔(Недетские мультфильмы. Создатель «Ежика в тумане» об искусстве и гламуре ). ''Argumenty i fakty''. 2015-04-23.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Overcoat (animated film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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