The love between people and their pets creates a strange and permanent bond, rarely shown better than in the intimate and fascinating "My Dog Tulip," following the 15-year relationship between English author and critic, J. R. Ackerley, and the German shepherd he rescued. The dog, named Queenie, was renamed for Ackerley's memoir and for the movie.
The husband-wife team of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger wrote the screenplay and did the amazing animation, for which they completed nearly 60,000 drawings in four distinct styles, each for a different mood. It's gorgeous work, and one of the highlights of the movie is the sensitivity that they demonstrate, as if they have a dog like Tulip.
Ackerley, who once wrote, "I was born in 1896; my parents were married in 1919," was a World War I veteran and an openly gay man. A writer and editor, he edited the BBC literary magazine for many years and acquired Queenie from one of his lovers in 1946. As with many people whose first pet arrives in middle age, the dog became the most important thing in his life, and when he wrote a joint memoir, "My Dog Tulip," in 1956, he left out very little. Neither did the Fierlingers. Tulip's excretory habits, her times in heat, her amorous adventures all receive good coverage. She died in 1961, Ackerley six years later.
But Ackerley's gentle prose and his feelings for Tulip, plus the remarkable drawings by the Fierlingers, make this a charming, sensitive, lovely film. It's improved by the narrations, with Christopher Plummer as Ackerley; the late Lynn Redgrave in her final role as his sister, Nancy, and as the shrewish wife of the green-grocer; and Isabella Rossellini as Miss Canvenini, the veterinarian. The film is dedicated to Redgrave, who died last May.
My Dog Tulip opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe