La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons
March 2nd, 2008Sylvain Chomet, best known these days as the man behind Les Triplettes de Belleville, produced the short “La Vieille Dame et Les Pigeons” (”The Old Lady and the Pigeons”) in 1996. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1997. It’s 20 minutes long but witty and engaging.
The setups are solid and sure-footed. There’s no mistaking the motivations or the reveals, it’s all quite satisfying. The American tourists were plenty fat, but they weren’t quite stupid enough — they had a little too much personality, and it rang false.
According to this interview he spent ten years on this. He also lists his greatest influence as Daniel Goosens. He also mentions Egon Shiele, which is not surprising, and satisfying to learn.
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March 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
This guy definitely has a style of his own. With the suspense created during the chase in her flat I laughed when he crashes trough the window and starts to flap his arms in an intent to fly.
What surprises me most is that his characters don’t talk , they make gurgling noises or mumble and one understands perfectly what they’re telling though
(if I remember well this was also the case for many of the triplettes characters).
Nice post.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I love his sense of timing — everything’s so deadpan. The silent characters are a very good idea if you want a larger audience — not everyone speaks the same language, but everyone understands a cartoon.
I wonder why this isn’t more common in film.