Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

-The Museum of Modern Art completes their tribute to current French animation this week. The schedule for the remainder of their film program is as follows:

Wednesday, March 1
6:00 The Dog, the General, and the Birds. 2003. France/Italy. Nielsen. 75 min. T1
2003. France/Italy. Directed by Francis Nielsen. Screenplay by Tonino Guerra, based on his book. With the voice of Philippe Noiret. Legendary Italian screenwriter Guerra—the author of films by Federico Fellini, Theo Angelopoulos, Vittorio De Sica, and Michelangelo Antonioni—tells the fantastic and brooding story of a Russian general who tries to thwart the advance of the Napoleonic forces on Moscow by using flocks of inflamed birds. As he lives out his last years in St. Petersburg, he is haunted by the memory of his barbarism toward the birds; aided by his faithful dog Napoleon, he tries to make peace with their brethren. 75 min.

also shown Sunday, March 5
1:00 The Dog, the General, and the Birds. 2003. France/Italy. Nielsen. 75 min. T1

Thursday, March 2
8:15 The Triplets of Belleville. 2003. France/Belgium/Canada/Great Britain. Chomet. 80 min. T1

Saturday, March 4
2:00 The King and the Mockingbird. 1980. France. Grimault. 85 min. T2
1979. France. Directed by Paul Grimault. Screenplay by Jacques Prévert, Grimault. Grimault was a major influence on Hayao Miyazaki and other contemporary Japanese animators, and his masterpiece is this adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s short story “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep.” With dialogue by the celebrated poet Jacques Prévert, the film is a true marvel with all the requisite fairy tale tropes: a despotic king, a taunting bird, a beautiful shepherdess and a lowly chimney sweep, paintings come to life, and a retro-futurist underworld of sparkling caverns, Venetian canals, and roving bat-police. New 35mm print. 85 min.

4:00 La Table tournante. 1988. France. Demy, Grimault. 80 min. T2
1988. France. Directed by Jacques Demy and Paul Grimault. With the voices of Grimault, Anouk Aimée, Mathieu Demy. Inspired by the success of his 1980 feature The King and the Mockingbird, veteran animator Grimault reedited some of his short films from the 1930s to the 1970s into this feature. Jacques Demy, the director of wonderfully fanciful live-action films like Donkey Skin and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, portrays a true poet at work: Grimault at his editing table, magically transforming paper and ink into flora and fauna. 78 min.

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