The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph (1997) User Reviews

black dances of death

[framptonhollis · 7/10 · 10 September 2017]

Grim visual poetry. Grimy, grungy, and grueling. Even for a surrealist body horror film, this short is pretty weird. The animation has something off about it, as does most stop motion, and the off putting quality works as another brilliant addition to the film's bleak and disturbing mood.

Directed by Robert Morgan, a modern master of animation, "The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph" is more or less what one could expect of him. Although it must be noted that using the word "expect" in any context while referring to this film is a little misleading, as nothing that occurs in this filthy nightmare is at all expected, particularly the oddly bittersweet ending, as well as the rather unpleasant imagery depicting a gruesome combination of sex and death-two themes often explored in great works of art.

Can't Get Beyond Its Tastelessness

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 1 August 2019]

We have an old guy who is practically dead. He is decaying before our eyes. He imagines a younger woman loving him. Now the lady next door hangs herself. And off we go! This is so vividly sickening, all the way through. i could almost smell the decay, just from the images.

Robert Morgan is the David Cronenberg of stop-motion

[Rectangular_businessman · 8/10 · 3 October 2023]

The second short by Robert Morgan, made only three years after his debut film, "Paranoid".

However, The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph already shows a big progress both from a technical and narrative standpoint.

Not only the animation is far more polished and elaborate, the plot already shows the gruesomely morbid imagination he will also display in his future work (Bobby Yeah in particular) narrating here the rather bleak of an unhappy man who ends finding a rather weird "consolation" for his misery after witnessing the suicide of his neighbor, leading to a dream sequence worthy of the most twisted moments from a David Cronenberg film.

Definately not for everyone, but fascinatingly grotesque.

Lost in execution

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

"The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph" may be a 13-minute short film, but it must have one of the longest film titles of the year 1997. Next year, it will have its 20th anniversary. The writer and director here is Robert Morgan and it's a British production. Don't worry though: If you don't speak English, it is no problem as there is no spoken language in here. Oh wait, then how did you understand my last sentence and this review in general??? Anyway, after reading this film's plot summary I thought this could turn out a nice and emotionally investing film, but sadly it did not. I personally did not like the animation style of the characters as well as the objects. This may have fit a horror film nicely, but it's not working for a sob story at all. Morgan was only in his early 20s when he shot this film, his rookie project, quite a while before his BAFTA nod, so I can forgive him for not being at his very best here yet. Nonetheless, I have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.