2023-06-15 19:15:02
In the age of artificial intelligence, the Annecy Festival celebrates the return of the tangible! Two exhibitions are organized around animated films featuring figurines in resin or modeling clay (“stop-motion”, in the jargon of animation). The first, in the Memorial room, adjoining the Saint-François-de-Sales church, shows behind the scenes of the formidable Forbidden to dogs and Italiansby Alain Ughetto, jury prize at the festival in 2022 and surprise success last winter.
The second, which takes place in the Artkené gallery, in Bonlieu, the beating heart of the festival, allows you to admire the hens of Chicken Run, the threat of the nuggetssequel to the famous film from the British studios Aardman (Wallace et Gromit, Shaun the Sheep), co-produced by Netflix, which will broadcast it on December 15.
Released in 2000, Chicken Run had enjoyed a deserved international success gathering, in France, more than three million hilarious spectators in front of this remake of The great Escape with hens trying to escape a cruel breeder…” The film was born from the observation that the cinema was sorely lacking in heroic chickens, and we decided to rectify this injustice. “, quipped Peter Lord, co-director of the first part and producer of the second, during a presentation, Wednesday June 14, at the Annecy Festival.
The sequel features the same characters, Ginger, Rocky and other Poulard and Mac Bec, determined to save a young hen imprisoned in a poultry croquette manufacturing plant, which looks like a military fortress… Decors teeming with details and burlesque action scenes are on the menu of one of the end-of-year events, on the American platform which likes to release its checkbook for animated projects in volume.
“As close as possible to the toys of your imagination”
The night before, Tuesday June 13, Guillermo del Toro had come to present his adaptation of Pinocchio, broadcast on Netflix in December 2022 (and Oscar winner since), during its outdoor screening on the Pâquier lawn. “ Animation is the most beautiful form of cinema and stop-motion is the purest form of animation. “, declared the Mexican director, during a masterclass, a few hours earlier. “ With action figure animation, you are as close to the toys of your imagination as possible. » The director of The shape of water has also said that he eventually wants to devote himself entirely to stop-motion animation.
A technique also present this year in competition with Leo, a feature film by Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon (in theaters January 31, 2024), about the last years of Leonardo da Vinci’s life and his privileged relationship with the young Francis I at the beginning of the 16th century. This delightful American, Irish and French co-production recounts this key period of the Renaissance with great humor.
It is not only the portrait of the artist and genius inventor, but also the picture of a period of scientific and cultural effervescence that this film paints for a family audience. It mixes with a refreshing fantasy cartoon and animation in volume, without always being very clear the reasons for the use of one or the other… But the stop-motion gives a tangible dimension to the brilliant ideas and inventions of Leonardo DeVinci.
France, European leader in stop-motion?
This part of the animation was produced at Foliascope, an animation studio in Valence (Drôme), recent winner of “La grande fabrique de l’image”, a support plan for studios and training schools defended by the Minister of culture. Coming to the Annecy Festival on Thursday June 15, Rima Abdul Malak met another winner whose project focuses on stop-motion, Films en Bretagne.
« The allocation commissions for this plan understood that stop-motion animation was a niche economy, but that we have the means to make France a European leader in the production of stop-motion films. explains Jean-François Le Corre, who took part in the Films en Bretagne project. ” A technique that is also immune to artificial intelligence, as long as it does not yet have an arm… »
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