#Benoît Feroumont

[dweemeister]

Robot Dreams (2023, Spain/France)

There exists an assumption that one has to be an animator in order to direct an animated film. While most cinephiles might reflexively point to Wes Anderson (2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2018’s Isle of Dogs), I think Isao Takahata (1988’s Grave of the Fireflies, 1991’s Only Yesterday) the exemplar here. Even so, a non-animator taking the reins of an animated movie is rare. Into that fold steps Pablo Berger, in this adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel Robot Dreams. Moved after reading Varon’s work in 2010, Berger acquired Varon’s “carte blanche” permission to make a 2D animated adaptation however he saw fit. Like the graphic novel, Berger’s Robot Dreams is also dialogue-free.

Beginning production on Robot Dreams proved difficult. Berger originally teamed with Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon (2009’s The Secret of Kells, 2020’s Wolfwalkers) to make Robot Dreams, but these plans fell wayside when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. His schooling in how to make an animated film would come quickly. Despite an increased appetite for Spanish animation worldwide (2019’s Klaus, 2022’s Unicorn Wars), poor distribution and marketing of domestically-made animated movies has often meant Spanish animators have roved around Europe looking for work. With a pandemic sending those Spanish animators home, Berger and his Spanish and French producers set up “pop-up studios” in Madrid and Pamplona, purchased the infrastructure and space needed to make an animated feature, and recruited and hired animators. Berger’s admiration of animated film fuses the lessons of silent film acting (Berger made a gorgeous silent film in 2012’s Blancanieves; in interviews, Berger cites Charlie Chaplin’s movies as having the largest influence on Robot Dreams, alongside Takahata’s films) to result in one of the most emotionally honest films of the decade thus far – animated or otherwise.

Somewhere in Manhattan in the late 1980s in a world populated entirely of anthropomorphized animals, we find ourselves in Dog’s apartment. Dog, alone in this world, consuming yet another TV dinner, is channel surfing late one evening. He stumbles upon a commercial advertising a robot companion. Intrigued, he orders the robot companion and, with some difficulty, assembles Robot. The two become fast friends as they romp about New York City over a balmy summer, complete with walks around their neighborhood and Central Park, street food, trips to Coney Island, and roller blading along to the groovy tunes of Earth, Wind & Fire. At summer’s end, an accident sees the involuntary separation of Dog and Robot, endangering, for all that the viewer can assume, the most meaningful friendship in Dog’s life and Robot’s brief time of existence.

If you have not seen the film yet, let me address a popular perception early on in this piece. Set in a mostly-analog 1980s, Robot Dreams contains none of the agonizing over artificial intelligence or automatons in fashion in modern cinema. There is no commentary about how technology frays an individual’s connections to others. Robot is a rudimentary creation, closer to a sentient grade school science project than a Data or T-1000.

So what is Robot Dreams saying instead? Principally, it is about the loving bonds of friendship – how a friend can provide comfort and company, how they uplift the best parts of your very being. For Robot, the entirety of their life prior to the aforementioned accident (something that I, for non-viewers, am trying not to spoil as Robot Dreams’ emotional power is fully experienced if you know as little as possible) has been one of complete estival bliss. Robot, in due time, discovers that one of the most meaningful aspects of friendship is that such relationships will eventually conclude – a fundamental part of life. And for Dog, Robot’s entrance into his life allows him to realize that, yes, he can summon the courage to connect with his fellow animals, realizing his self-worth. Perhaps Dog gives up addressing the accident a little too easily, but the separation of friends has a way of complicating emotions and provoking peculiar reactions.

On occasion, Robot Dreams’ spirit reminds me of Charlie Chaplin’s silent feature film period (1921-1936) – in which Chaplin, at the height of his filmmaking prowess, most successfully wove together slapstick comedy and pathos. On paper, pathos and slapstick should not mix, but Chaplin was the master of combining the two. No wonder Berger fully acknowledges the influence of his favorite Chaplin work, City Lights (1931), here.

Across Robot Dreams, Berger inserts an absurd visual humor that works both because almost all of the characters are animals and despite the fact almost everyone is an animal. A busking octopus in the New York City subway? Check. The image of pigs playing on the beach while sunburnt to a blazing red? You bet. A dancing dream sequence where one of our lead characters finds himself in The Wizard of Oz performing Busby Berkeley-esque choreography on the Yellow Brick Road? Why not? Much of Chaplin’s silent film humor didn’t come from his Little Tramp character, but the silliness, ego, and/or absentmindedness of all those surrounding the Tramp. In City Lights, humor also came from the rough-and-tumble edges of urban America. Such is the case, too, in Robot Dreams, with its blemished, trash-strewn depiction of late ‘80s New York (credit must also go to the sound mix, as they perfectly capture how ambiently noisy a big city can be).

Amid all that comedy, Berger nails the balance between the pathos and the hilarity – pushing too far in either direction would easily undermine the other. The film’s melancholy shows up in ostensibly happy moments and places of recreation: a realization during a rooftop barbeque lunch, the emptiness of a shuttered Coney Island beach in the winter, and an afternoon of kiting in Central Park. It captures how our thoughts of erstwhile or involuntarily separated friends come to us innocuously, in places that stir memories that we might, in our present company, might not speak of aloud.

As the film’s third character, New York City (where Berger lived for a decade) is a global cultural capital, a citywide theater of dreams, a skyscraper-filled signature to the American Dream. To paraphrase Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But it tends to grind those dreams into dust. The city’s bureaucratic quagmire is lampooned here, as is its reputation for mean-spirited or jaded locals. Robot Dreams also depicts the visual and socioeconomic differences between the city’s boroughs. With such a jumble of folks of different life stations mashed together, Dog’s people-watching, er, animal-watching during his loneliest moments makes him feel the full intensity of his social isolation. With Robot, however, Dog has a naïve companion that he can show the best of the city to. Robot has no understanding of passive-aggressive or outright hostile behavior (see: Robot hilariously not understanding what a middle finger salute is – the only objectionable scene if you are considering showing this to younger viewers). Within this city of contradictions, Dog and Robot’s love is here to stay.

Though he is no animator, his experience in guiding Spanish actresses Ángela Molina, Maribel Verdú, and Macarena García in Blancanieves through a silent film was valuable. In animated film, there is a tendency towards overexaggerating emotions. But with Robot Dreams’ close adaptation of the graphic novel’s ligne claire style and the nature of Robot’s face, the typical level of exaggeration in animation could not fly in Robot Dreams. Berger and storyboard artist Maca Gil (2022’s My Father’s Dragon, the 2023 Peanuts special One-of-a-Kind Marcie) made few alterations to the storyboards, fully knowing how they wished to frame the film, and hoping to convey the film’s emotions with the facial subtlety seen in the graphic novel. Character designer Daniel Fernandez Casas (Klaus, 2024’s IF) accomplishes this with a minimum of lines to outline characters’ bodies and faces. Meanwhile, art director José Luis Ágreda (2018’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles) and animation director Benoît Féroumont (primarily a graphic novelist) visually translated Sara Varon’s graphic novel using flat colors and a lack of shading to convey background and character depth (one still needs shading, of course, to convey lights and darks of an interior or exterior).

Robot Dreams’ nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature this year was one of the most pleasant surprises of the 96th Academy Awards. In North America, Robot Dreams’ distributor, Neon, has pursued an inexplicable distribution and marketing strategy of not allowing the film a true theatrical release until months after the end of the last Oscars. The film was available for a one-night special screening in select theaters in and near major North American cities the Wednesday before the Academy Awards. And only now (as of the weekend of May 31, 2024), Neon will release Robot Dreams this weekend in two New York City theaters, the following weekend in and around Los Angeles, with few other locations confirmed – well after interest to watch the film theatrically piqued in North America.

Alongside Neon’s near-nonexistent distribution and marketing of Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated documentary Flee (2021, Denmark), one has to question Neon’s commitment to animated features and whether the company has a genuine interest in showing their animated acquisitions to people outside major North American cities. This is distributional malpractice and maddeningly disrespectful from one of the most acclaimed independent distributors of the last decade.

In Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger and his crew made perhaps the best animated feature of the previous calendar year. Robot Dreams might not have the artistic sumptuousness of the best anime films today, nor the digital polish one expects from the work of a major American animation studio. By film’s end, its simple, accessible style cannot hide its irrepressible emotional power. Its conclusion speaks to all of us who silently wonder about close friends long left to the past, their absence filled only by memory.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[silviacrossdresser]

—Sweetheart! That's going a bit far there! —Oh, but you are so sexy!

By Belgian cartoonist Benoît Feroumont, who signs his adult works as Gracy Gimp.

[whateverbringsyouthroughthenight]

GracyGimp from Benoît Feroumont (https://www.bferoumont.be/)

[tesia-a-138]

J'ai besoin de rêver, de croire aux contes de fées, j'ai besoin de jouer à la vie.

Maria Petrisi

Art de Benoît Feroumont

[rocket-prose]

The Kingdom: just before the attack, a Spirou autumn calendar,

An original piece of art by Benoît Feroumont. (2014)

[garobulles]

La double page de jeux en hommage au dernier album de Benoît Feroumont Le Royaume ! Une pépite !

[gabriellacoumau]

Turn du personnage Anne de la bande dessinée Le Royaume de  Benoît Feroumont

[rachelpocket]

I have made the storyboard of that comic drawn by Benoit Feroumont @bferoumont , about Fodé and his foster family. J’ai fait le découpage de cette BD dessinée par Benoit Feroumont  @bferoumont​ au sujet de Fodé et de sa famille d’accueil. C’était un bon exercie.

[pogono]

Home Made Comics Seal of Approval #234

Nicke gifter sig av Benoît Feroumont utgiven av Cobolt 2016.

[nunopds]

Apresentamos a nossa rubrica Melhores LeR (Leituras e Releituras) referente ao mês de janeiro de 2017. Como é habitual, sublinha-se que, se por um lado, as obras de/sobre banda desenhada e demais livros ilustrados (re)lidos em janeiro podem não ter tido data de lançamento neste mês ou sequer neste ano, por outro lado não foi obviamente realizada a leitura da totalidade das publicações lançadas no mês supramencionado.

A equipa do site Bandas Desenhadas continua a listar as suas melhores LeR, tendo contado com a participação de cinco elementos, o que certamente contribui para um conjunto de sugestões ecléticas. Não contabilizando as repetições, no total, são 45 propostas diferentes, desde as que geraram prazer na leitura até às intelectualmente estimulantes, passando pelos mais variados géneros literários, faixas etárias dos principais públicos-alvo e países de origem (Portugal, Espanha, Bélgica, Itália, Grécia, EUA, Brasil ou Japão).

Espera-se que janeiro tenha sido mais generoso com os leitores deste espaço, pois isso certamente providenciará muitas partilhas, indicando outros trilhos a seguir e mundos a explorar. Utilizem o espaço dos comentários para nos desvendarem as vossas melhores leituras e releituras de janeiro de 2017.

Melhores LeR de Nuno Pereira de Sousa em janeiro de 2017

– A Minha Casa Não Tem Dentro – António Jorge Gonçalves (Abysmo, 2017) – Rendez-Vous em Phoenix – Tony Sandoval (Kingpin, 2016) – Aaarg! Magazine 7 – vários autores (Financière De Loisirs, 2017) – Millénium Saga T.1: Les Âmes Froides (d’aprés Stieg Larson) – Sylvain Runberg & Belén Ortega (Dupuis, 2016) – Preto no Branco 6 – vários autores (Façam Fanzines e Cuspam Martelos, 2016) – Clown T.1 – Louis Le Hir (Mosquito, 2012) – Portuguese Small Press Yearbook 2016 – vários autores (Portuguese Small Press Yearbook, 2016) – Cadernos de Viagem: Anotações e Experiências do Psiconauta – Laudo Ferreira (Devir Brasil, 2016) – Station 16 – Yves H. & Hermann (Le Lombard, 2014) – H.Ell T1: La Mort, Sous Toutes les Formes – Stephen Desberg & Bernard Vrancken (Le Lombard, 2013) – Disney Comix 191 – vários autores (Goody, 2017) – Rock & Stone T.1 – Nicolas Jean & Yann Valéani (Delcourt, 2014) – Aú, O Capoeirista – Flávio Luiz (Papel A2, 2008) – Aú O Capoeirista e o Fantasma do Farol – Flávio Luiz (Papel A2, 2014) – Fantasio se Marie – Benoît Feroumont (Dupuis, 2016) – Clássicos do Cinema Turma da Mônica 52: Gamebusters – Flávio Teixeira de Jesus & Jairo Alves dos Santos (Panini Brasil, 2016)

Melhores LeR de Susana Figueiredo em janeiro de 2017

– Terra de Sonhos – Jiro Taniguchi (Levoir, 2016) – Democracia – Alecos Papadatos e Abraham Kawa (Bertrand, 2016) – As Águias de Roma: Livro V – Enrico Marini (Asa, 2016) – Thor: O Último Viking – Walt Simonson (Salvat, 2016) – O Inverno do Desenhador – Paco Roca (Levoir, 2016) – Cadernos de Viagem: Anotações e Experiências do Psiconauta – Laudo Ferreira (Devir Brasil, 2016) – Disney Comix 157 – vários autores (Goody, 2015) – Disney Comix 158 – vários autores (Goody, 2015) – Disney Comix 159 – vários autores (Goody, 2015) – Disney Comix 183 – vários autores (Goody, 2016) – Disney Comix 184 – vários autores (Goody, 2016) – Disney Comix 185 – vários autores (Goody, 2016) – Hiper Disney: Edição Especial – vários autores (Goody, 2017) – Clássicos do Cinema Turma da Mônica 52: Gamebusters – Flávio Teixeira de Jesus & Jairo Alves dos Santos (Panini Brasil, 2016)

Melhores LeR de Rodrigo Ramos em janeiro de 2017

– Guardiã: A Detetive do Sobrenatural vol. 1 – Robbert Damen (Avec Editora, 2016) – Jockey – Rafael Calça & André Aguiar (Veneta, 2015) – A Vida de Jonas – Magno Costa (Zarabatana, 2014) – Lucky Luke: A Terra Prometida – Achdé & Jul (Asa, 2016) – Adormecida: Cem Anos Para Sempre – Paula Mastroberti (Editora BesouroBox, 2012) – Coelho Nero: Coisas que um Coelho pode te dizer – Omar Viñole (Quadro Imaginário, 2013) – Coelho Nero: Simpático – Só que não – Omar Viñole (Quadro Imaginário, 2014

Melhores LeR de Carla Ramos em janeiro de 2017

– Rex Mundi Volume 1: The Guardian of the Temple – Arvid Nelson & Eric J (Dark Horse, 2006) – Rex Mundi Volume 2: The River Underground – Arvid Nelson & Eric J (Dark Horse, 2007) – Rex Mundi Volume 3: The Lost Kings – Arvid Nelson & Juan Ferreyra (Dark Horse, 2006)

Melhores LeR de Pedro Silva em janeiro de 2017

– Os Túnicas Azuis: O Frade – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2016) – Os Túnicas Azuis: O Submarino David – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2016) – Os Túnicas Azuis: Black Face – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2017) – Os Túnicas Azuis: O Ouro do Quebeque – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2017) – Os Túnicas Azuis: A Batalha de Bull Run – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2017) – Os Túnicas Azuis: A Loucura dos Azuis – Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambel (Asa, 2017) – A Casa – Paco Roca (Levoir, 2016) [sc name=”pub_ao_bandas”] As melhores LeR em janeiro Apresentamos a nossa rubrica Melhores LeR (Leituras e Releituras) referente ao mês de janeiro de 2017. Como é habitual, sublinha-se que, se por um lado, as obras de/sobre banda desenhada e demais livros ilustrados (re)lidos em janeiro podem não ter tido data de lançamento neste mês ou sequer neste ano, por outro lado não foi obviamente realizada a leitura da totalidade das publicações lançadas no mês supramencionado.

[putall]

Benoît Feroumont

[siggestript]

Robbedoes door… Benoît Feroumont: Kwabbernoot gaat trouwen

Benoît Feroumont

De Robbedoes door… verhalen zijn al jarenlang stukken leuker dan de lopende serie. Schrijf- en tekenstijlen wisselen natuurlijk nogal, dus het vereist een open geest, maar de beloning is de inspanning meer dan waard. Eén van mijn favorieten is Paniek op de Atlantische oceaan omdat ik nou eenmaal fan ben van (de tandem) Lewis Trondheim & Fabrice Parme. Dat album wijkt misschien wel het meeste af van wat je gewend bent, maar verraadt ook het meeste plezier bij de makers. Deze week heeft Paniek geduchte concurrentie gekregen, want Kwabbernoot gaat trouwen vist op alle fronten in dezelfde vijver en doet dat met groot succes.

In het album lopen twee verhalen door elkaar. Allereerst natuurlijk het feit dat Kwabbernoot gaat samenwonen en daarna trouwen. Maar dat speelt vooral op de achtergrond en is hooguit aangever van het belangrijkste plot: de roof en wederroof van een magische ketting. Zoals gebruikelijk zit ook dit album weer vol met knipoogjes naar de oorspronkelijke serie. Die zijn dit keer vooral gericht op het oubollige padvinderimago van Franquins Robbedoes. De nadruk ligt daarbij op vrouwenemancipatie. Vrouwen spelen een sleutelrol. Dat blijkt al uit het feit dat Kwabbernoot op een zijspoor wordt gezet en Robbedoes ditmaal een team vormt met IJzerlijm. Wie opdringerig feminisme vreest mag opgelucht ademhalen. Kwabbernoot gaat trouwen voelt vooral als de introductie van de moderne tijd, waarbij vrouwen de rol krijgen die ze in onze moderne samenleving nou eenmaal hebben. Misschien een tikje er bovenop, toegegeven, maar dat leidt vooral tot heel veel hilarische scènes. Kers op de taart vormt de introductie van Robbedoes' moeder, die nog altijd niet onder ogen wil komen dat haar familie fout was in de oorlog. Je wist het niet. Twee duimen omhoog.

[journaljunkpage]

MARIÉ OU PENDU

PLANCHES

Spirou, héros éternellement jeune depuis 1975 et quelques années, bénéfice parfois d’une aventure hors de sa série principale. C’est au tour de Benoît Feroumont (Le Royaume, Gisèle et Béatrice) de s’emparer de cet aventurier emblématique avec Christelle Coopman pour les couleurs. Fantasio plie bagage et lâche son colocataire de toujours. Non pas pour une broutille mais pour se marier ! Chamboulement total des habitudes des deux vieux célibataires. D’autant qu’il ne se marie pas avec n’importe qui : il est le promis de Clothilde Gallantine, fille de la grande prêtresse des magazines de mode. Spirou se retrouve seul, alors même qu’il vient d’assister au vol d’un collier inestimable dans le bureau de la future belle-mère de Fantasio. Sécotine débarque heureusement à son secours et décide de prendre les choses en main. Débute alors une aventure où Spirou rencontre le sexe féminin dans toute sa splendeur et sa diversité !

Des femmes, partout, tout le temps, et avec des caractères différents. Voilà qui est particulièrement rafraîchissant dans une bande dessinée – voire dans une oeuvre de fiction en général – où elles sont souvent reléguées au rang de faire-valoir si ce n’est pire ; il peut être utile de se renseigner sur le test de Bechdel en cas de doute sur la question.

Le scénario de Benoît Feroumont laisse une belle place à l’humour, l’aventure et l’émotion en racontant une histoire résolument ancrée dans son temps et dans des problématiques que nous connaissons bien. Si bien que Spirou a parfois un peu de mal à suivre et s’écrie : « Mais les femmes sont moins fortes que les hommes quand même ! » Heureusement Sécotine veille et peut expliquer à l’entourage : « Il vient d’une autre époque ! C’est très vingtième siècle comme discours ! » À (s’)offrir impérativement !

Fantasio se marie, Benoît Feroumont, Dupuis

[mii-riam-spirou]

When you don’t let anyone know your heart is broken. Page 12 from ‘Fantasio se marie’ by Benoît Feroumont, scanlation by Spiroureporter.

[franceinfobd]

Dans le magazine Spirou, le belge Benoît Feroumont dessine depuis quelques années une série médiévale, tendre et amusante : Le Royaume. 

Quand on lui demande quelle série lui préfère dans l'histoire du magazine il évoque spontanément Bidouille et Violette de son compatriote Bernard Hislaire.

Rendez-vous sur BD, bande dessinée pour la chronique

[les-larmes-d-eros]

Raped by an angel - par Benoît Feroumont