France,
1999, 70 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
-
Michel Ocelot
- prod
-
Didier Brunner, Jean-François Laguionie
- scr
-
Michel Ocelot
- cam
-
Michel Ocelot
- editor
-
Anita Vilfrid, Michèle Péju, Dominique Leféver
- mus
-
Christian Maire
- cast
-
Arlette Mirapeu, Philippe Cheytion, Yves Barsacq
- source
-
Celluloid Dreams, 24, rue Lamartine, 75009 Paris, France. WEB www.celluloid-dreams.com
OTHER
French animator Michel Ocelot’s remarkable talents have been known in the animation world for years, but it was the 1998 release of his stunning feature Kirikou and the Sorceress that brought him the wider international acclaim he deserves. Only a year later, he has crafted yet another visual gem destined to entrance viewers young and old. Using a unique silhouette technique, Ocelot creates a shadow theater of intricate and expressive cutouts moving elegantly across resplendent color washes, setting the stage for a fantastic display of imaginative storytelling. With the assistance of an old technician and his storymaking machine, a young boy and girl devise and perform in six different and equally memorable fables of heroes and heroines, princes and princesses, damsels in distress and knights in shining armor. The two children choose the time period, costumes and basic narratives of each story, feed the details into the machine, and out pops a play. Traveling through time and space, from the Egypt of the pharaohs to the Middle Ages to ancient Japan and even into the year 3000, Ocelot presents a global and historical context for his tales of happily-ever-after. It is a magical experience six times over.
—Joanne Parsont
FACTOID #1
The Festival has screened many debuts, both short- and feature-length, by some of cinema’s most influential artists including Juan Antonio Bardem, Jane Campion, Roman Polanski, Melvin Van Peebles and Lina Wertmüller.
