Animation in France

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Animation in France
Emile Cohl Ladislav Starevitch Alexander
Alexeieff and Claire Parker Peter Foldes Rene
Laloux Paul Grimault
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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• Emile Cohl (Émile Courtet) called "The Father of
  the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Parisian"
  was born in Paris in 18571864 at the age of 7,
  he was enrolled at the Ecole professionelle de
  Pantin, a boarding school known as the Institut
  Vaudron after its founder.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1870 the Franco-Prussian War began. The chaos
  caused by the siege of Paris led to the closing
  of his fathers factory. 1872 three-year
  apprenticeship with a jeweler. Émile drew
  caricatures, enlisted in the Cherbourg
  regiment.1878, Émile obtained a letter of
  recommendation from Etienne Carjat to approach
  André Gill, the best-known caricaturist of the
  day, for a job.
• Gill's trademark was the large, recognizable
  head of the target (with a fairly benign
  expression) atop a small puppet body (doing
  something ridiculous). It was based on fantoche
  puppetry.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)
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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)
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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1881 André Gill was committed to the Charenton
  mental asylum. He managed to recover in a few
  months and in 1882 submitted his first serious
  painting, "Le Fou" (The Madman) to the Salon. The
  painting's poor reception by the artists of the
  Salon sent him back to Charenton.1883 editor in
  chief of La Nouvelle Lune the focus was
  absurdism, nightmares, and the drawing style of
  children.
• 1883 "an exhibition of drawings by people who do
  not know how to draw" at the Vivienne Gallery.
  Émile Cohl's contribution was titled Portrait
  garanti ressemblant (Portrait--Resemblance
  Guaranteed)
• 1886 Cohl produced his most bizarre and
  characteristic work in the Incoherent vein Abus
  des metaphors, a collection of more than a dozen
  colorful expressions brought to life.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1885 Andre Gill died deserted by his friends and
  public with only Cohl by his side. 1898 started
  contributing to L'Illustré National. This would
  be the origin of Cohl's comic strips.
• 1907 the 50-year old Émile Cohl, like everyone
  else in Paris, had become aware of motion
  pictures. 1907- scenarist writer at French film
  studio Gaumont1907 huge success of the film
  "The Haunted Hotel", released by Vitagraph and
  directed by J. Stuart Blackton. Cohl studied the
  film frame by frame, and in this way discovered
  the techniques of animation.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1908 "Fantasmagorie" 6 months which is
  considered the first fully-animated film ever
  made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of
  which was double-exposed, leading to a running
  time of almost a minute.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1908 "Fantasmagorie" 6 months which is
  considered the first fully-animated film ever
  made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of
  which was double-exposed, leading to a running
  time of almost a minute.
• 1908 "Le Cauchemar du fantoche" "The Puppet's
  Nightmare", now lost
• 1908 "Un Drame chez les fantoches" "A Puppet
  Drama", called "The Love Affair in Toyland" for
  American release
• 1908 "Mystical Love-Making" for British release
• chalk-line style
• the stick-figure clown protagonists
• the constant transformations
• 1909 "Les Joyeaux Microbes" "The Joyous
  Microbes", aka "The Merry Microbes"
• Strange transformations

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1909 Clair de lune espagnol" "Spanish
  Moonlight", aka "The Man in the Moon" great
  matte effects
• 1910 "Le Tout Petit Faust" "The Little Faust",
  aka "The Beautiful Margaret loving puppet
  animation
• 1910 "Le Peintre néo-impressionniste" "The
  Neo-Impressionistic Painter"1910 Cohl left
  Gaumont for Pathé, probably for more money"Le
  Ratapeur de cervelles" "Brains Repaired"
• "La Revanche des espirits" The Spirit's Revenge
• 1911 Cohl signed with Eclipse in September. None
  of Cohl's Eclipse films have survived, so little
  is known of his work there--it appeared to
  consist of object animation and travelogues.

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1912 invited to New York city by Éclair's
  American studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey humorous
  newsreel inserts and The Newlyweds animated
  series. Cohl saw both "The Story of a Mosquito"
  and "Gertie the Dinosaur" live at the Hammerstein
  Theater in New York, and he recorded his
  admiration of each in his diary.
• 1914 the Cohl family left New Jersey for Paris
• 8 days later a fire destroyed most of Éclair's
  American films, including all but two of Cohl's
  films ("He Poses for His Portrait" and "Bewitched
  Matches" aka "Les Allumettes ensorcelées"
  (Fr.)). 1920 Cohl quit Éclair and made
  "Fantoche cherche un logement" aka Puppet's
  Mansion

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Emile Cohl (1857-1938)

• 1929, the severe illnesses of Suzanne and his
  fellow stamp-collector Albert Coyette forced him
  to sell off his stamp collection and therefore
  his means of livelihood.
• It was believed that all his films were
  lost1937 Cohl was awarded the medal of the
  Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie
  Nationale and a stipend of 4000 francs. He had
  been nominated by Léon Gaumont. 1937 Cohl was
  admitted to La Pitié hospital for severe burns,
  the result of being too poor for electricity and
  drawing by lamplight. He was burned so badly that
  any movement was agonizing. "I am nothing but a
  broken marionette" he told a reporter.1938 died
  of bronchial pneumonia in poverty and deserted

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1882 born Wladyslaw Starewicz born in Moscow,
  Russia
• raised by his grandmother in Kaunas,
  Lithuaniasecondary school in EstoniaAcademy of
  Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.
• 1910 director of a museum of
• natural history in Kaunas. made 5 short
  live-action
• documentaries for the museum.

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1910 "Lucanus Cervus" inspired by a viewing of
  "Animated Matches 1908 by Emile Cohl,
  re-created the fight through stop-motion
  animation he removed the legs and mandibles from
  two beetle carcasses, then re-attached them with
  wax, creating articulated puppets.
• 1911 moved to Moscow and began work with a film
  company known variously as Khazhonkov.made two
  dozen films, most of them puppet animations using
  dead animals
• 1912 "The Beautiful Leukanida"
• 1911 "The Ant and the Grasshopper" - got
  Starewicz decorated by the czar.

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1912 The Cameraman's Revenge
• 1914-1918 worked for several film companies,
  directing 60 live-action features, some of which
  were fairly successful.

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1917 after revolution the film community largely
  sided with the White Army and moved from Moscow
  to Yalta on the Black Sea.
• 1917 Starewicz and his family fled before the Red
  Army could capture the Crimea, stopping in Italy
  before joining the Russian émigrés in Paris.
• formed a company in the remains of Georges
  Méliès' old studio.
• 1918 "The Scarecrow"
• 1919 company dissolved, with most of the Russians
  joining the Berlin or Hollywood studios.
• 1920 moved to Fontenay-sous-Bois and started on a
  series of puppet films and made two dozen films.

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1922 The Frogs That Demand a King, aka Frogland
• 1923 Voice of the Nightingale

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Ladislas Starevich (1882 - 1965)

• 1934 The Mascot, aka Puppet Love, aka The
  Devil's Ball
• 1939 Tale of Renard the Fox ten years of
  production
• 1965 died while workingon " Like Dog and
  Cat.It was left unfinished out of respect.

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Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) and Claire
Parker(1910 - 1981)

• 1901 Alexander Alexeieff was born in Kazan,
  Russiaspent his childhood in Constantinople,
  Turkey
• Clair Parker born in Boston 1910attended Bryn
  Mawr college and studied drawing at MIT

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Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) and Claire
Parker(1910 - 1981)

• 1920s designed and peinted sets for production
  companies including Ballet Russe
• Taught himself lithography, engravings,
  woodcuts, etchings, illustration
• 1934 invention of a new technique in animation
  the Pinscreen (called the pinboard until the
  mid-sixties).

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Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) and Claire
Parker(1910 - 1981)

• 1933 The night on Bald Mountain, based on the
  music of Moussorgsky.
• inspired by Ballet Mechanique Fernand Leger

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Alexander Alexeieff (1901-1982) and Claire
Parker(1910 - 1981)

• 1946 En Passant, based on the Canadian folk song,
  done at the National Film Board of Canada, opened
  the international festival of Cannes in 1946.
• 1963 The Nose based on Gogol's short story.
• 1972 Pictures at an Exhibition based on the music
  of Moussorgsky
• 1980 Three Moods using Moussorgsky's music

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Paul Grimault (1905 -1994)

• 1905 born in Neuilly-sur_Seigne, France
• Worked with Andre Sarrut in Les Gemeaux making
  commercials

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Paul Grimault (1905 -1994)

• 1947 Brave little solder
• 1948-1952 The Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep.
  With partner André Sarrut

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Paul Grimault (1905 -1994)

• 1952 André Sarrut shown the film against Gaumont
  wishes.This caused a rift between partners and a
  stop in production.
• 1967 Grimault got possession of the film and was
  able to complete it under a new title, Le Roi et
  l'Oiseau (there are many names for it in English
  that have been used in various releases,
  including The King and the Bird, The King and
  the Mockingbird, The Curious Adventures of Mr.
  Wonderbird .

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Paul Grimault (1905 -1994)

• Grimaults films are neither philosophic theses
  nor revolutionary experiments but he is the only
  cartoonist who can be compared with Renoir in his
  deep feeling for reality, for humanity for the
  joy and sadness of our experience.

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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)

• 1924 born in Budapest
• 1946 moved to England
• studied at the Courtauld Institute and the Slade
  School of Art,
• London
• 1949 first one man show at the Hanover Gallery,
  London
• From money from that he received from paintings
  bought movie
• Camera and made his first film
• Animated Genesis grand prix at the Cannes Film
  Festival
• 1954 A short vision - grand prix in Venice
• 1956 moved to Paris return to painting
• 1977 died in Paris

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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)
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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)
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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)
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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)

• 1965 return to film
• 1971 Metadata Canada
• 1974 Hunger ... aka Faim Canada
• 1977 Envisage
• 1977 Rêve
• 1977 died in Paris

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Peter Foldes (1924 -1977)
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Rene Laloux (1929 2004)

• 1929 born in Paris
• went to art school to study painting
• worked in advertising

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Rene Laloux (1929 2004)

• got a job in a psychiatric institution where he
  began experimenting in animation with the
  interns.
• 1960 1960's "Monkey's Teeth" in collaboration
  with Paul
• Grimault's studio using a script written by the
  Cour Cheverny's interns.
• 1964 "Dead Time" with collaborator Roland Topor
• 1965 Les Escargots

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Rene Laloux (1929 2004)

• 1973 "Fantastic Planet"

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Rene Laloux (1929 2004)

• 1981 Time Masters with Jean Giraud
• 1987 Gandahar aka Light Years
• with American Science Fiction master Isaac
  Asimov. Asimov edited the American translation of
  this film. It received a significant US film
  industry award a decade later in 1997.