In this ciné-concert with live piano, meet the pioneers of animation and the fascinating and unsual stories they tell.

Cutout animation, animated puppets, cartoon, and stop motion are a few of the techniques used by the pioneers of animation of the silent era.

This program invites viewers to discover the inventions that came before the cinematograph, and provides an opportunity to meet several major figures in the history of French animation, to see them at work in their studios with their strange devices, and to appreciate the fruit of their labor on the big screen.

The ten films presented over the evening follow the odyssey of animated film through documentaries and fiction films made with a wide variety of techniques. They reveal the world of these extraordinary artists in all its originality. Today, these pioneers continue to invite viewers to rediscover a history of cinema long forgotten.

Program courtesy of the French Film Archives at the National Center for Cinema (CNC).

Autour de Will Day
Wilfrid Day, 1997, 4 min. 

Paris-Cinéma
Pierre Chenal, 1929, 7 min.

Bécassotte à la mer 
Marius O’Galop, 1920. 6 min.

Les Locataires d’à côté 
Émile Cohl, 1909. 3 min.

Quelques croquis de gosses 
Hy Mayer, 1923. 7 min.

Sculpteur moderne
Segundo de Chomón, 1908. 4 min.

Affaires de Cœur
Émile Cohl, 1909. 3 min. 

La tuberculose menace tout le monde 
Robert Lortac & Jean Comandon, 1918. 2min. 

Les déboires d’un piéton
Robert Lortac, Landelle, 1922. 1 min. 

Gulliver chez les lilliputiens
Albert Mourlan & Raymond Villette, 1923. 22 min.