Film
Fantastic Planet + Shorts

Saturday, February 3, 2018
8:45pm
Mature Audiences
FIAF Florence Gould Hall



This program pays homage to the great artist René Laloux with his counterculture classic and first feature film Fantastic Planet, preceded by three shorts that marked his career.

La Planète sauvage 
1973. 72 min. Color. DCP restored.
In French with English subtitles. 

Welcome to Ygam, a far-flung planet where humans are kept as pets by giant blue creatures known as Draags. In this science fiction allegory, legendary illustrator and writer Roland Topor joins René Laloux to tell the story of Terr, a human boy who escapes from his Draag owner. Laloux’s visionary cutout animation brings Topor’s surreal sensibility to life, while composer Alain Goragues blends psychedelic, funk and jazz sounds to create an immersive experience. One of the first French animated features, Fantastic Planet is a mind-bending spectacle for children and adults, as provocative and spellbinding today as it was four decades ago.

Winner of the Special Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival

Les Escargots
1966. 13 min. DCP. No dialogue.
Giant snails wreak havoc on human society and a farmer waters his crop with his tears in Laloux and Roland Topor’s masterpiece of surreal animation.

Les Dents du Singe
1960. 13 min. Color. DCP. No dialogue.
Inspired by a workshop in a psychiatric clinic, Laloux’s first film is the trippy tale of a monkey who chases down an evil dentist.

Comment Wang-Fô fut sauvé 
1983. 16 min. Color. 35mm.
In French with English subtitles. 

In this sumptuous homage to classical Chinese painting, the master painter Wang-Fo is punished by the Emperor for making him believe life was as beautiful as his paintings.