If an anime could truly be called a Masterpiece, then La Maison en Petits Cubes is definitely one of them. What should we expect from such a short movie...without any words?! Please, expect a lot, you will not be disappointed.
This movie tells us the story of an old man living in a small house, in a small place, where floods seem to be somewhat usual. One day, this old man, while recovering his belongings and furniture from the water, lets his smoking pipe fall into the water.
He gets himself a diving suit and goes in search of his poor smoking pipe, that has fallen near a small hatch. As he opens the small hatches existing in every floor of his house and dives deeper and deeper, he remembers fragments of his life.
The deeper the floor is, the oldest the memory is, so we start with seeing him with his late wife and we eventually get to the memories of when he was a little boy.
The sound is excellent. While I admit there aren't any "real" songs, the sound goes perfectly well with the atmosphere of La Maison en Petits Cubes, and makes it all even more nostalgic and touching. Know how you might catch a song that remembers you of someone and you just shut your eyes, let it play, and it's like the person became alive? Well, the sound here works a little like that, is half of the beauty in this short movie :)
What might be a little worse is the art style, not exactly what we imagine as anime, no shining eyes, no flashy hair. Just an old man, tired and left alone in that world. You might find it a little strange at the start, but you'll probably get used to it during the movie. It also matches the story very well; we wouldn't want a spikey-haired old man swimming through his past.
There aren't much characters, aside from the old man and the people in his memories, but even if they don't speak, they don't appear for more than a few minutes (seconds?) we can perfectly know how they're feeling. The old man is adorable and you'll certainly smile at how he still treasures all those pictures.
I found this short movie extremely beautiful and well-done, something so simple and pure could really be so touching in only 12 minutes. If you have them, please save them for La Maison en Petits Cubes and you'll certainly be glad you did.
