A few words about the author and the animation director

The Tale of the Three Brothers is a short animated film included in the movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. This short film is a team work because the scenario has been written by J.K. Rowling in her book, but the three minute animated sequence has been directed by Ben Hibon.

Joane Rowling (her author name is J.K. Rowling) is an English author. She was born in 1965, and is mainly known for the Harry Potter book series, which were published from 1997 to 2007.  She is not known as a gothic author, as the Harry Potter books belong to the fantasy genre. However, this tale, included in the last Harry Potter book and presented as an old tale told by wizards to their children, can be considered as a gothic story.

Ben Hibon is a Swiss animation director who was born in 1977. He created sequences for video games and horror movies before directing the animated short film The Tale of The Three Brothers in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. He might soon be directing Pan, a dark contemporary version of the story of Peter Pan. As Ben Hibon directed only one short film which belongs to the gothic genre, he can’t be considered as a gothic artist.

     

The plot

This short film is about three wizards who avoid death by making a bridge over a deep river which was too dangerous to cross. Death feels cheated and pretends to congratulate the three brothers on their magic by giving them presents: the most powerful wand ever made, a stone which can recall others from death, and a cloak which makes anything invisible.  Two of the brothers are driven mad by the power of their gifts, thus permitting Death to take them. The third brother is a humble man. He keeps on the cloak until he is very old so that death can’t find him, and then takes it off and accepts his death peacefully.

What makes it a gothic short film ?

-The setting: the short film starts with a voice-off saying: “There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight.” This sentence describes a gothic setting: a lonely, remote and dark place, where mysterious things can happen. The setting seems alive, as the voice-off says: “winding road “. Moreover, the colours of the movie are only black, white, and golden, and the set and the characters are like shadows made of cut paper. These elements give an impression of mystery and dark magic which are features of the gothic genre.

-Characters: the character which belongs the most clearly to the gothic genre is the allegory of death. Indeed, in addition to his ghoulish nature, this character is represented as an oddly-shaped skeleton with a ripped cloak and a hood. Because of this cloak, the spectator can’t see his body entirely, thus giving an impression of mystery. This character is cunning and devilish, and he represents the evil in the gothic stories.

The three brothers are travelling on a road they don’t know, and they are brought face to face with an evil and threatening character. They are easily deceived by Death because of their gullibility. They are like Isabella in The Castle of Otranto and lots of gothic characters: confronted with danger and evil in a place they don’t know.

-General mood: the presence of the allegory of death makes the atmosphere ghoulish, in addition to the successive deaths of the three brothers. Furthermore, the first brother has his throat ripped by another wizard and the second brother hangs himself: these are violent events, which make the atmosphere dreadful.

-Growing sense of terror: the spectator knows that Death wants to take the three brothers and that he will succeed because he is very powerful. In this way, each death is like a countdown until the younger brother’s death, that the spectator likes because he is humble and kind. The spectator dreads this character’s death, which seems to get closer at any minute, thus making the atmosphere more and more nerve-racking. However, at the end, the spectator understands that the cloak of invisibility enables the third brother to hide from Death, and he feels relieved when he greets Death “as an old friend.”

-Recurrent themes: First, the atmosphere of suspense is given by the threat that is lingering over the third brother and whether he will be killed or not. Also, supernatural events happen. Indeed, even though the use of wands and magic is normal because the rest of the movie is set in a magical world, the appearance of Death is inexplicable and mysterious. We can also note that the first brother is “drunk with the power of the wand” and the second brother is “driven mad with hopeless longing”, which are high and overwrought emotions. Then, the three brothers (even though they are not women) are threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical character. Moreover, the crows which are flying in the sky during the film are a metonymy of horror and death. Finally, we can notice several words which belong to the vocabulary of the gothic: “magical”, “hopeless”, “sad”, “lonely”, “dangerous” “angry”, “death”.

Place of the imaginary

In this short film, the imaginary has a very important place. Indeed, above all, the story takes place in an imaginary world where people have wands and magical powers. Besides, the appearance of the allegory of death, with a hood and a cloak, belongs to the imaginary. Likewise, the gifts that the three brothers receive belong to the imaginary. Indeed, the “wand more powerful than any in existence” is an imaginary object, which can’t exist in the real world. Then, the stone which has the power to recall others from Death is something lots of people would dream about, but that is only real in their imagination. Finally, the cloak of invisibility may be created by scientists in a few centuries, but for now it only belongs to the imaginary…