En 1982, Tim Burton travaille aux studios Disney. Il s'est occupé de l'animation du renard dans Rox et Rouky et a participé à l'un des plus gros échecs de la firme, Taram et le Chaudron Magique. Burton ne supporte pas l'ambiance "tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil" de Disney. Il conçoit donc le projet d'un court-métrage lui permettant d'échapper au consensus disneyen. Le vice-président des studios accepte après avoir longuement hésité car il considère que la technique choisie (la stop-motion façon Ray Harryhausen) est une expérience intéressante. Il laisse donc une totale liberté à Burton (en plus de 60 000 dollars de budget).

        Pour réaliser sa première œuvre, Burton s'entoure d'un collaborateur de longue date, Rick Heinrichs qui surveillera la production (liberté totale, on vous dit...) et de Stephen Chiodo (futur réalisateur avec son frère de l'étrange Killer Klowns). Tim Burton sait parfaitement quelle va être l'histoire de ses premières six minutes de mise en scène. L'histoire d'un petit garçon a priori comme les autres (Vincent Malloy) mais dont la passion pour Vincent Price et Edgard Poe vampirise l'imaginaire. Un enfant solitaire et rêveur, étranger au monde réel. Le portrait même de Tim Burton. Vincent étant avec Ed Wood le plus directement personnel et auto-biographique de ses films.

        Mais pour parachever l'œuvre il faut un narrateur à la hauteur du sublime texte. Et pourquoi pas Vincent Price lui-même ? Burton rencontre alors l'idole de son enfance, le héros de ses rêveries gothiques et morbides, l'abominable Docteur Phibes en personne. Et la voix de Price fait des merveilles dans Vincent, colportant une émotion et une poésie qui décuplent l'impact d'images de toute beauté.

        Car Vincent en à peine six minutes, s'avère être une perle absolue. Un instant bouleversant et unique. L'esthétique burtonienne est déjà omniprésente, l'animation est parfaite, la photographie est renversante mais surtout la poésie du texte transcende cette production Disney. Disney qui s'inquiéta un peu tard de la noirceur de l'œuvre, mais pour la première fois (et qui sera loin d'être la dernière), Burton tient tête au producteur et impose sa vision "alternative" au sein d'un grand studio.

        Quelques images touchent au sublime. Vincent se transformant en Vincent Price à la grande terreur de son chat (ah ! le chat noir burtonien !), Vincent et son chien zombie au milieu du brouillard londonien, le portrait hanté de "sa" femme enterrée vivante, les escaliers de la "Tour du Destin", le cauchemar final et surtout cet ultime plan bouleversant qui transforme ce simple court métrage d'animation en véritable symbole de la future carrière de Burton.

        Premier court-métrage, premier contact avec le cinéma, Vincent (que l'on a redécouvert en première partie de The Nightmare Before Christmas) est aussi le premier chef-d'œuvre de Burton. Une œuvre tragique en noir et blanc somptueux dont voici le texte intégral :

 

VINCENT

 

Vincent Malloy is seven years old,

he's always polite and does what he's told.

For a boy his age he's considerate and nice,                                 

but he wants to be just like Vincent Price.

He doesn't mind living with his sister dog and cats,

though he would rather share a home with spiders and bats,

there he could reflect on the horrors he has invented,

and wonder dark hallways alone and tormented.

Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see him,

but imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum.

he likes to experiment on his dog Ebocrombi,

in the hops of creating a horrible zombie.

So he and his horrible zombie dog,

could go searching for victims in the London fog.

His thoughts though aren't only of goulish crime,

he likes to paint and read to pass some of the time,

 

While other kids read books like "Go Jane go",

Vincent's favourite author is, Edgar Allan Poe.

One night while reading a gruesome tale,

he read a passage that made him turn pale,

such horrible news he could not survive,

for his beautiful wife had been buried alive.         

He dug out her grave to make sure she was dead,

unaware that her grave was his mother's flower bed.

his mother send Vincent off to his room,

he knew he'd been banished to the tower of doom.

where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life,

alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife.

 

While alone and insane encased in his doom,

Vincent's mother burst suddenly into the room.

she said "If you want to, you can go out and play,

It's sunny outside and a beautiful day."

Vincent tried to talk but he just couldn't speak,

the years of isolation had made him quite weak.

 

So he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen;

I'm possesed by this house and can never leave it again.

his mother said: "you are not possesed and you are not almost dead,

these games that you play are all in your head,

you are not Vincent Price your'e Vincent Malloy,

your'e not tormented or insane you're just a young boy,

you're seven years old and you are my son,

I want you to get outside and have some real fun."

Her anger now spent she walked out through the hall,

while Vincent back slowly against the wall..

The room started to sway to shiver in crick,

his horrored insanity had reached it's peak.

he saw Ebocrombi his zombie slave,

and heard his wife call form beyond the grave;

she spoke from her coffin and made goulish demands,

while through cracking walls reached skeleton hands.

 

Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreams,

swept his mad laughter to terrified screams.

To escape the badness he reached to the door,

but fell limp and lifeless down, on the floor.

His voice was soft and very slow,

as he quoted the "raven" from Edgar Allan Poe;

"and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the

floor, shall be lifted, nevermore."

 

Vincent : a Walt Disney Production - A Film by Tim Burton & Rick Heinrichs - Narrated by Vincent Price - Written, Designed and Directed by Tim Burton - Produced by Rick Heinrichs - Technical Director : Stephen Chiodo - Director of Photography : Victor Abdalov - Music by Ken Hilton - Sculpture and Additional Design : Rick Heinrichs - Animation : Stephen Chiodo - 1982 - 6 min

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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