René Laloux
Directing
Biography
René Laloux was born in Paris in 1929 and went to art school to study painting. After some time working in advertising, he got a job in a psychiatric institution where he began experimenting in animation with the interns. It is at the psychiatric institution that he made 1960's Monkey's Teeth (Les Dents du Singe), in collaboration with Paul Grimault's studio, and using a script written by the Cour Cheverny's interns. Another important collaborator of his was Roland Topor with whom Laloux made Dead Time (Les Temps Morts, 1964), The Snails (Les Escargots, 1965) and his most famous work, the feature length Fantastic Planet (La Planète Sauvage, 1973). Laloux also worked with Jean Giraud (Mœbius) to create the lesser known film Les Maîtres du temps (Time Masters), released in 1982. Laloux's 1988 film, Gandahar, was released in the US as Light Years, and made in cooperation with the artist Caza. The US version was redubbed by Harvey Weinstein, from a screenplay adapted by Isaac Asimov. The US version was not as successful as the French version, grossing less than $400,000 on its release. Laloux died of a heart attack on March 14, 2004 in Angoulême, Charente, Poitou-Charentes, France.
Known For
Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.
Spécial cinéma
On the planet Ygam, the Draags, extremely technologically and spiritually advanced blue humanoids, consider the tiny Oms, human beings descendants of Terra's inhabitants, as ignorant animals. Those who live in slavery are treated as simple pets and used to entertain Draag children; those who live hidden in the hostile wilderness of the planet are periodically hunted and ruthlessly slaughtered as if they were vermin.
Fantastic Planet
Animation TV magazine.
De l'autre côté
On planet Perdide, an attack of giant hornets leaves young Piel alone in a wrecked car with his dying father. A mayday message reaches their friend Jaffar, an adventurer travelling through space. Onboard Jaffar’s shuttle are the renegade Prince Matton, his fiancée, and Silbad, who knows Perdide well. Thus begins an incredible race across space to save Piel.
Time Masters
On the planet Gandahar where peace reigns and poverty is unknown, this utopian lifestyle is upset by reports of people at the outlying frontiers being turned to stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate this mysterious threat.
Gandahar
Ernest the vampire
Ernest the Vampire
There is a world with two towns that are big enemies: Pyross and Hydross.
The Rain Children
Once upon a time there lived in the same village two men bearing the very same name. One of them chanced to possess four horses, the other had only one horse, so, by way of distinguishing them from each other, the proprietor of four horses was called "Great Claus," and he who owned but one horse was known as "Little Claus"...
Little Claus and Big Claus
In a distant planetoid, an industrious but hapless old farmer strives to make his vegetables flourish, however, to no avail.
The Snails
No description available.
Quality Control
Two kids travel to a city where silence is kept sacred.
The Captive
Wang Fo, the greatest master of medieval China, aided by his assistant who has given up everything to follow him, desperately seeks aesthetic perfection. A day comes when he thinks he has achieved it. But his genius arouses both the curiosity and the jealousy of the Emperor. Wang Fo will be able to escape the Emperor's vindictiveness only by going to the limit of his talents.
How Wang-Fo Was Saved
Conceived, drawn and animated live by a team of patients from a psychiatric clinic, this achievement presents, in the eyes of its author, less interest on a purely cinematographic level than on that of human experience. It is the disturbing wordless story of a woman and a man living in a strange setting where objects are endowed with life that they have chosen to tell us through this theater of shadow puppets in cut out figurines. Their characters will know a tragic fate since carried in the air by balloons, they will finally be devoured by a horrible dragon.
Tick Tack
No description available.
The mountain giving birth
What is man? Man makes war, man kills man, man hunts, man is executed. A montage mixing original drawings by Topor, original shots and stock shots that ironically analyze what man is.
Dead Times
A slow and ugly fairy tale based on the drawings of inmates at a psychiatric clinic where LaLoux worked.
Monkey's Teeth
Predecessor of the movie Gandahar released 10 years later, only time will tell us what unfolds in this mysterious utopic universe.
The Machine-Men
After a long time, a blue wolf, locked in the cage of a Paris zoo, winds up allowing Afrique, a young boy who visits him day after day, to come close to him. As the wolf is one-eyed, the boy has the idea to shut one eye himself and thus manages to communicate with the proud wild animal. Wolf and kid then start telling each other the story of their respective lives...
The Eye of the Wolf
A short documentary about the life of director and artist René Laloux, featuring an interview with Laloux from 2001.
Fantastic Laloux
Organic forms are beating and resorbing, reflections dance to the rhythm of Henk BADINGS 'music, circles of light flash like disturbing eyes, perpetual metamorphoses evoke a great living and throbbing organism.