Dedalo ("Labyrinth") is a 1976 animated short film (11 minutes) from Italy, animated and directed by Manfredo Manfredi.
A man and woman sit in a room. A gust of wind blows the window open. Suddenly, the man strangles the woman to death. He then goes to prison...or does he? Did he imagine everything?
Manfredo Manfredi animated the entire film by hand, without using cels.
Tropes:
- Book Ends: Birds flying by the window at the beginning and the end.
- Creepy Doll: A child on a swing falls off, and changes to a doll, which shatters when it hits the ground. The doll with the broken-open head is pretty creepy, and even more so later when the doll opens one eye and looks at the camera.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The film is animated mostly in black-and-white, with charcoal drawings.
- Imagine Spot: It's hard to tell, but it seems like most of the film is an extended imagine spot where the man imagines killing the woman and going to prison.
- Limited Animation: Much of the film has relatively limited animation, with only one character moving at a time. The backgrounds are spare to nonexistent.
- Line Boil: Much of the film is shot against black charcoal background that always shake in a line boil effect—because Manfredi drew the entire film by hand.
- Male Frontal Nudity: The man is seen naked as he showers in prison, further evidence of his degradation.
- Mind Screw: It's difficult to follow the story. Did the man kill the woman? Or did he just imagine it? The woman is alive at the end and they are back in the room, but is that indicative of an extended Imagine Spot, or Anachronic Order? What is the significance of the baby that becomes a shattered doll? Why does the shower head drip blood?
- Silence Is Golden: There is no dialogue in the short film, just music and some scattered sound effects, like laughing children.
- Splash of Color: Various bits of color are used in a mostly black and white short. The shattered doll is shown in pink. Then the doll's eye opens and is shown to be bright blue. Drops of red blood fall from the shower head.
- Traumatic Haircut: The man's hair is hacked off as he's admitted to prison.
