It
is rather ironic 3D films often feature one-dimensional characters. In contrast, the figures of Michel Ocelot’s Dragons et princesses series are 2D,
rendered through a particularly stylish form silhouette animation. In a literal instance where “television is
the new cinema,” six of the shorts produced for Canal+Family were aggregated
into the 3D film, Tales of the Night (trailer here), which screens
during the IFC Center’s retrospective tribute to GKIDS.
The
old man used to work in movies, until he was forced to retire, while the boy
and the girl are too young for the business to take notice of them. Yet, every night they gather at a shuttered
revival cinema to brainstorm ambitious films they would eventually like to
make. All three share similarly romantic tastes, often staging fairy tales that
offer the boy an opportunity for heroics and the girl a justification for some
elaborate costumes and hairstyles. Even
the old man finds inspiration in these fables, finding the perfect locations
online.
Shrewdly,
Night begins and ends with two of its
strongest tales, both of which happen to be set in Medieval Europe. “The Werewolf” is obviously a story of
lycanthropy, but it is more concerned with the rivalry of two princesses than
gothic horror. Easily the weakest link,
the Caribbean tale of “Tijean and Belle-Sans-Connatre” probably should have
been buried somewhere later in the line-up than the second spot. The story of the adventurer, the three
monsters he encounters, and a princess’s prospective hand in marriage features
some problematic attempts at dialect, while sharing many elements with
subsequent tales.
The
movie lovers rebound considerably with “The Chosen One and the City of Gold.” An
Aztec-flavored parable in which a stranger fights to save the beautiful woman selected
as a human sacrifice, it is arguably the most thematically sophisticated of Night’s component films. With “The Boy Tam-Tam,” Ocelot returns to the
African settings of films like Azur & Asmar, which largely established his reputation in America. It is a nice enough coming-of-age fable that
gets a good kick from the percussive music.
Each
of the roughly twelve minute installments is perfectly suitable for children,
but the Tibet-set “The Boy Who Never Lies” is by far the most tragic, but that
also helps differentiate it from the other tales (along with the striking
Himalayan backdrops). Concluding with “The Doe-Girl and the Architect’s Son,” Ocelot’s
would-be filmmakers revisit both Medieval Europe and true love complicated by
shape-shifting for a suitably ever-after conclusion.
