Filmmakers, especially screenwriters, sometimes run afoul of good storytelling by assaulting us with thinly-veiled personal stories of the tortured and misunderstood artist (usually a writer) who makes some journey that is of tremendous importance — to one person on earth. Nina Paley’s innovative, eclectically animated feature, Sita Sings the Blues, avoids the vortex of self-obsessed navel-gazing, despite the personal, autobiographical inspiration for the work.
Ironically, Paley turns the personal pain of a failed relationship into an enjoyable entertainment by way of epic allusion: drawing a comparison between her own experience and that of Sita, the Indian mythological character who loved, married, and was rejected by Rama. Showing tremendous creative ambition and risk-taking, Paley simultaneously maintains four parallel narratives, each with a different animation style: (1) the story of “Nina” and “Dave” separating physically and eventually emotionally, in a shaky hand-drawn style; (2) a conversation between three friends or colleagues remembering and discussing the Sita/Rama myth, in a shadow-puppet style reminiscent of Michel Ocelot; (3) the Ramayana story itself, in a collage style; and last but not least, (4) an alternate telling of the myth by which, true to the title, a Betty Boop style Sita sings the blues, a la 1920’s recordings of Annette Hanshaw.
The result is fun, educational, though-provoking, and genuinely touching. I suspect that the process was also cathartic for its creator. Fortunately for us, Faley wasn’t preoccupied with letting us know one way or the other. [Ed: Sita Sings the Blues recently had a run at the Siskel Film Center, but it available online through New York's Channel 13 or through the filmmaker's website.]
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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