Masterpieces of French animation of the turn of the XX-XXI centuries: analysis and interpretation in the context of the development of French animated cinema

U Zijian Postgraduate student; Department of Architecture, Design and Ecology; Sochi State University 354003, Russia, Sochi, ul. Plastunskaya, 94 wuzijian@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

French animated films have played a special role in the development of world animation. The French school is of great interest for research, both from the point of view of studying world trends in animated cinema, and clarifying the peculiarities of the formation and development of national approaches to this art. In Russian science, however, there are relatively few publications dealing with the topic of French animation. Thus, some information on this issue is contained in the article by L.V. Tarasov ^[1]. Focusing on the study of Russian and foreign animation from an ideological point of view, the author concludes that at the present stage French animation "is aimed at the social integration of various social groups and strata of the population, which is the most significant trend of the present time" ^{[1, p. 118]}. This study aims to expand scientific understanding of the world's oldest animation school based on the analysis and interpretation of the most representative works of French animation that appeared at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries.

French animated cinema always bears the imprint of the peculiarities of the national culture of romance and imagination, based on traditional animation, strengthens the research and development of technology, integrates the artistic language of animation and cinematography, combines romanticism and surrealism, creating animation with rich French specifics. Unlike the "industrialized" animation of the Disney company, French animated films follow the path of embodying the individual style of the masters of art, preserving their own original handwriting and attaching national cultural content ^[2]. Most French cartoons are highly individualistic – such production requires considerable time and effort and, unlike commercially oriented animation, is not suitable for creating large-scale works, therefore short animated films dominate in France. The masters of French animation have chosen the path of preserving the traditional national culture, which also requires continuous updating. Of course, such a model and such production are not without drawbacks: it is impossible to form as good a production chain as in commercial animation, and besides, making films requires intense intellectual work, therefore, short films predominate in European animated cinema, represented by French animation. However, this does not mean that European animation, considered on the example of French animated films, is not capable of creating large-scale full-length films; on the contrary, precisely because it follows similar traditions and innovations, without forgetting the original purpose, full-length animated films also become masterpieces.                               

"Kirikou and the Witch" (Fig. 1) is one of the representative works of the famous French animated film director Michel Oselo; a joint production of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. "Kirikou and the Witch" is the first film in the Kirikou series, which became a sensation immediately after it was released in France in 1998: visits totaled more than 1.3 million, turning the film into the box office leader in the history of French animated cinema.

The plot of the animated film is based on a children's fairy tale, painting has incorporated wall paintings of Ancient Egypt, and music has African melodies; the animation style is generally concise, forcing the viewer to focus on the narrative and providing more time for reflection, rather than trying to draw attention to visual effects.         

The film connects several small plots, building the logic of a holistic story. When Kirikou gets out of his mother's womb by himself, it immediately becomes clear: although he is a child, he is not an ordinary person. When the baby asks Kirika to wash him, his mother says: "a child who is born by himself, washes himself too" – these words indicate that the mother wants to see her son independent in business, and emphasizes the boy's dissimilarity from the rest. As the plot progresses, a series of events takes place, and all the dangers are successively dealt with thanks to the help of Kirikou, the trust of people in whom is strengthened; after this, the most important clash of the film is brewing: Kirikou wonders why the sorceress is so evil, goes in search of an answer in search of his grandfather, the sage, and finally reveals the secret of the sorceress. Kirikou helps her get rid of the pain caused by the enchanted thorn, and, turning into a man, returns with the witch to his village, whose inhabitants refuse to recognize him, but Kirikou's mother comes forward and resolves this misunderstanding. Here the ignorance of Kirikou's tribesmen and his own wisdom and bravery are manifested – the truth often turns out to be on the side of the minority. The simple and at the same time complex construction of this film consists in combining small stories into the logic of the overall plot, where there is no shortage of depicting many details, which forces viewers not only to follow the development of the narrative, but also to look for the meaning hidden in the little things.     

When creating the animation, Michel Oselo borrowed the style of Egyptian frescoes to emphasize simplicity, primitiveness and truthfulness. The colors in the picture have a symbolic meaning, serve as a metaphor for human destiny; since the action takes place in Africa, the culture and traditions of this land determine the presence of bright and light colors in the film, creating the basis for the colors used in the film ^[3] (Fig. 2).

The opening scenes reveal to the viewer an ochre earth exuding anxiety; a dark gray shade was chosen for the witch's dwelling, symbolizing her malice, but inside everything is painted in bright red, reflecting the inner suffering of the woman, and behind her in the candelabra a flame burns, showing the hatred burning the witch.

The interior of the witch's house is painted red, a symbol of anger and hatred, and the dwelling of the wise grandfather Kirikou is a calm blue color reflecting his wisdom and peace. Grandfather's cave is far from the village, far from its ignorant inhabitants, and the witch's house separates the old man's dwelling and the village, blocking the way to spread knowledge – the appearance of Kirikou destroys the "balance" created by the witch, and therefore the main character becomes a guide of wisdom. When the boy pulls the cursed thorn out of the witch's back, the color of all the trees and flowers instantly changes – an alarming red turns into a calm azure, symbolizing the end of pain and suffering, and the witch's face is filled with peace. In this film, the connection between color and expression is fully manifested: in the harmony of space, color and sensations, Michelle Oselo embodies an enhanced visual display skill.

From the point of view of the portrayal of the characters, there is a striking contrast between the sorceress Karaba and Kirikou: the boy is small, he does not have any clothes on, and Karaba is very tall and wears a luxurious robe. Although Kirikou is still just a child, he has the courage and wisdom that an adult would envy. The boy asks the question "why is the sorceress Karaba evil?" – from his point of view, there are reasons for human malice, Kirikou believes that "for every why there is a because"; it is this close attention to human nature that allows the hero to reveal the secret of the sorceress. Karaba is tall, wears amazing clothes and has powerful magical abilities, but there is malice in the depths of her heart. The sorceress wants people to obey her orders, but such an aspiration deprives her of happiness and generates hatred from the people; this conflicting contradiction does not weaken the suffering caused by the thorn, but on the contrary, makes Karaba get deeper and deeper into evil. Such a sharp contrast of two key characters allegorizes the direction of the plot development, enhances the drama and penetrates into human nature ^[4].                    

The main idea of the film, revealed through a series of events taking place one after another, is to reflect human kindness, to emphasize the richness of human nature in the narrative. This work by French director Michel Oselo, rooted in the mythology of West Africa, shows that the power of love is able to overcome any hatred and malice thanks to Kirikou's feelings and his struggle for the truth.   

The whole film is filled with wisdom and love, and its concise audiovisual style builds rich images of the characters and a rich storyline: both Kirika and Karaba have a sympathetic side. The sorceress is by no means a villain who has committed monstrous crimes – she herself is suffering, and Kirikou, although outwardly he seems like a Tom Thumb, in fact has great wisdom and saves both his village and Karaba. Another character is Kirikou's mother, who plays the role of protector: whenever Kirikou faces danger or finds himself at a loss, his mother always supports and guides him.              

Sylvain Chaume's masterpiece "The Trio from Belleville" (Fig. 3) was released in 2003, earning high marks in the world of animated cinema. The works of this French director are few, but they are getting better and better from film to film. The Trio from Belleville attracted the attention of thousands of viewers due to the success of Chaume's previous work, The Old Lady and the Pigeons. The Trio from Belleville is filled with images of the daily life of the French and their habits, finely and carefully executed details and visual power based on hyperbolization and freedom of expression, while everything is filled with French humor directed by Sylvain Chaume ^[5]. In this outstanding work, the elaboration of scenes is absolutely necessary, since high-quality episodes can not only play a huge role in the overall impression of the film, but also interact with the camera, improve the work of the director and reflect the idea of the work. The French animated film "The Trio from Belleville" can be called a model in the field of plot construction, drawing style, character development, scene construction, musical design and means of expression. 

The color scheme of the film should both harmonize the tone as a whole and set the atmosphere, strengthening the director's idea. Especially in such animation, where dialogues are almost completely absent, color mastery plays an extremely important role, contributing to the subtle expression of emotions ^[6]. From the point of view of color transmission, the "Trio from Belleville" mainly uses black and white tones and color shades, allowing us to easily feel French romanticism and family warmth and at the same time carrying some sadness and nostalgia. 

At the beginning of the film, black and white tones are used to embody the atmosphere of the past. The plot opens with the performance of the "Trio from Belleville", and the colors used in this scene instantly convey the features of bygone days, and from the appearance of the artists it can be judged that their attire belongs to early stage costumes; a cheerful old–fashioned performance is accompanied by a sign "Belleville" - here the title of the work becomes part of the episode, setting a curious beginning to the animation and the deliberately created effect of an old film on a silver screen further emphasizes the atmosphere of nostalgia ^[7]. After the entire screen is filled with static, a scene appears of a grandmother and grandson watching TV. There are several other episodes in the film where black and white tones are used to show the dream world or describe unusual scenes. Thanks to the different shades, the director reflects the connection between different space and time and pays homage to black and white silent cinema.

The strength of the emotions shown in the film lies in their delicacy, the feelings do not border on excited madness. When a piano lesson is shown in close-up, which a grandmother gives to a young grandson, the colors become softer, and at the same time the red-brown shades increase, the warmth of orange color appears in the tone. And when the grandmother notices that her grandson does not like music at all, the sadness of failure is expressed not only by the pose of the old woman and her distressed raised head, but also by the dark purple color. However, the grandmother does not despair and carefully tries to arouse her grandson's interest – this time the color temperature changes, and a subtle change in shades reflects the change in the old woman's soul and her love for the boy. When a grandmother buys her grandson what he really loves most – a small bicycle – the boy claps his hands with joy, and the walls of the courtyard turn bright yellow, and maple leaves falling from the trees and the autumn gold of the surrounding expanses create an even more poetic atmosphere.                         

In an animated film, the background environment not only indicates the time, place and epoch of the events taking place, but also, more importantly, reflects the situation around the main character, adds colors to the story: for example, creates a joyful, sad, frightening or comical atmosphere. And the historical period is most often expressed through specific details ^[8].

At the beginning of the film, a static scene appears where a grandmother and grandson are watching a Disney-style cartoon. A child who has neither mother nor father is withdrawn and does not want to do anything. His grandmother buys him a puppy and a bicycle, and he becomes very attached to them. The child rides a bike all the time. Several years pass. The dog is growing up, and the child has been trying to improve his cycling skills for years. Every day he prepares for the Tour de France with his grandmother (fig. 4).

The frames dedicated to the story of the child and his grandmother are dominated by yellow, the scenes are painted in bright colors. However, over the years, the city has been acquiring darker colors. The grandmother constantly trains the child using her whistle, and finally the day of the competition comes. The bike tour scenes are colorful and vibrant. People are cheerful and joyful. These scenes make the audience feel that cycling is very important for France. Cyclists participating in the competition are compared to racehorses. They have wild, sunken eyes and huge protruding teeth, which make their breathing sound like horses wheezing. Meanwhile, bad characters appear, consisting of geometric shapes and completely black, except for the faces. They kidnap the participants of the bike tour. According to the author and director of the cartoon Sylvain Chaume ^[9], geometric shapes are used to express the characteristics of the characters. Although the movements in the film are close to reality, there are also many unrealistic scenes in it. For example, a grandmother, when she notices that it has gone down, inserts a dog into the bike and continues the pursuit. After that, a difficult sea voyage begins. The grandmother, realizing that her grandson was kidnapped and taken to America, sails across the ocean on a simple boat following the giant ships. Shome says that his favorite scene in the film is the scene where grandma and the dog are fighting the ocean waves.^[9] The emotional classical music of Mozart is used in this fragment. The film has a realistic narrative structure, but it includes a number of secondary events that are unrealistic and do not give direction to the development of the plot.

This painting strives to maximize the power of the image: a complete rejection of dialogues, hyperbolization of actions and symbolism of objects – all this successfully creates a rapidly changing story. Every minor detail, every thing that seems to be placed completely thoughtlessly into the camera lens, serves as a hint about the future development of the plot and creates the effect of deliberate exaggeration or understatement, reflecting the inner content of the work. A close–up of a large number of details found in the film and the subsequent change of focus forces us to constantly look for the meaning hidden in the little things, to think about the construction of the entire scene - this creates a frequent change of visual images. The husbands and wives appearing after the opening credits implicitly express the director's respect for the message contained in the cartoons of the master Albert Dubout (Albert Dubout is an artist and illustrator who gained fame in the early twentieth century and created a picture of the spouses where "the wife is tall and domineering, and the husband is small and weak", which turned into a very bright and a memorable image of a married couple). In an overseas city, where a grandmother arrives in search of her grandson, after throwing a hand grenade into the water, it begins to rain frogs: This is both a scene of the lyrical loneliness of reality, and a satire on the propensity of Americans to use weapons.                    

The "Trio from Belleville" is a work that masterfully combines art and technique; individual creative style, conscious endowment of colors with expressiveness, a plot finely worked out to the smallest detail, the construction of space from different angles – all these are key elements that enhance the artistic expression of scenes, and components of animation that cannot be neglected ^[10]. In animation and cinematographic work, the construction of scenes must meet the general requirements of the director, fully implement his creative idea, as well as embody the individual creative search of the artist, creating scenes with a unique style.     

The considered works were of great importance for the development of the modern language of French animation and had a significant impact on the work of modern masters of animation.

Fig. 1. Michelle Oselo. Kirikou and the witch. 1998.

Fig. 2. Michelle Oselo. Kirikou and the witch. 1998.

Fig. 3. Sylvain Chaume. The trio from Belleville. Les triplettes de Belleville. 2003.

Fig. 4. Sylvain Chaume. The trio from Belleville. Les triplettes de Belleville. 2003.