Begone Dull Care (1949) by Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren

On the National Film Board website Evelyn Lambart (1914-1999) is credited with fourteen films, yet she does not get a bio. Her thirty-year career is overshadowed by her early work in collaboration with Norman McLaren. Indeed, their films are sometimes attributed to him alone. For example, "Short and Suite" (1959) is not listed on her page, despite her name being in the credits. Here is a Canadian female director in need of recuperation!

Her later method was generally to use paper cut-outs on lithography plates, painted, and then animated. But one of her best films, created through rather different means, is the early McLaren co-creation "Begone Dull Care" (1949). Here the film stock was painted directly, using a variety of means.

The contribution of the Oscar Peterson Trio is also notable. "Begone Dull Care" has won many international awards, and was designated a masterwork by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.

A biography of Lambart and an article on the film itself are available in archives.