#alain gagnol

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Tulipe

Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol

Lunanime/Folimage, 2016

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Currently Watching

A CAT IN PARIS [UNE VIE DE CHAT] Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol France-Belgium, 2010

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A Cat in Paris (2010)

Sometimes, the Academy Awards make it too obvious they'll just nominate any decently budgeted animated film. Treasure Planet? Brother Bear? The Croods? A Cat in Paris is the exception. It didn’t win and doesn’t quite have the emotional depth necessary for it to have been worthy of that shiny trophy but this is a lovingly-made, tense and extremely stylish action/comedy.

In Paris, Zoé (voiced by Oriane Zani) watches her pet cat Dino leave every night through the window. No one could suspect the feline spends its nights with Nico (Bruno Salomone), a cat burglar. One night, his path crosses that of crime boss Victor Costa (Jean Benguigui).

Right away, you’ll notice the film's outstanding character designs, shading, color palette, and art style. While not all 3D animated movies look exactly the same, there are few you could point to and say “I can clearly see who worked as the art director on this one”. Every frame of Une Vie de Chat/A Cat in Paris comes from Jean-Loup Felicioli. Don't know who that is? That's fine. It just means you're seeing something new. Even before we get into the action or anything else, it’s a joy to just sit back and look at the film. The way faces look when they turn sideways, the proportions of the characters, the angles of the floor patterns, which details are preserved and which are omitted, etc. It all stands out to make a unique vision.

Clocking in at a mere 65 minutes, this is a fast-paced story. The bulk of it takes place in one night when Zoé’s police superintendent mom, Jeanne (Dominique Blanc), organizes the city’s police force to secure the Colossus of Nairobi statue. She knows Victor Costa will try to steal it and that he’s responsible for the death of her husband so it’s extra important that she get him. As Costa and his bumbling henchmen try to organize, all of the separate plot threads converge. There’s a lot of running and dodging as people try to get away from the police, try to warn the authorities about what’s going to happen or try to prevent people from getting to the police. The score by Serge Besset helps amplify the intensity.

Despite several characters' murderous intentions, this is not a heavy story. You get a lot of laughs from Costa’s goons and from Dino as well - he’s got a knack for jumping on people’s faces at the right time. My favorite gag concerns a yappy dog who annoys its owner whenever Dino passes by. Movie fans will also have fun with a couple of references to gangster/crime movies, like Reservoir Dogs and Goodfellas but what I enjoyed most was the way the animated medium is used. There’s a scene set in complete darkness where Nico has to sneak by some people and it’s brilliantly done. There aren’t any colours so it doesn’t quite encompass all of the film’s best qualities, but it’s close.

Fans of animation should make the effort to check out A Cat in Paris. It’s short so you won’t be investing too much time, you’ll be entertained all the way through and the art design/animation is inspirational. It’s light but that’s perfectly fine. This just makes this the kind of movie you pop in when all you want is something entertaining. (Original French version, On DVD, April 23, 2021)

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A Cat in Paris (Une vie de chat) Directors: Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol France, 2010

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Phantom Boy: Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol. With Edouard Baer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Audrey Tautou, Jackie Berroyer. A super-powered boy helps a wheelchair-bound policeman in his attempt to bring down a mob kingpin.

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December 2023

Color studies of the opening scene of “Une Vie de Chat”, by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol.

Oil pastels on paper

A5 Landscape Sketchbook

[maaanoncescutti]

1 - Rio, Carlos Saldanha, 20th Century Fox et les Blue Sky Studios

2 - Jeu de piste à volubilis, Max Ducos

3- Les enfants de la mer, Ayume Watanabe, Studio 4°C

4- Une vie de chat, Alain Gagnol et Jean-Loup Felicioli, studio Folimage

5 - Manabe Shima, Florent Chavouet

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A Cat in Paris (2010)

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A Cat in Paris

directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, 2010

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A Cat in Paris / Une vie de chat (2010) dir. Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol | “Looks like it’s time for our terrible tom to go out on the prowl.“

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A Cat in Paris (2010) Dir. Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol

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Currently Watching

PHANTOM BOY Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol Belgium/France, 2015

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Un gatto a Parigi

Un gatto a Parigi

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo abbiamo fatto un passo indietro nel tempo e abbiamo parlato di un grande classico e un vero capolavoro della settima arte, Spartacus di Stanley Kubrick. Un film prodotto da Kirk Douglas, che fu anche il protagonista, che ebbe un’interessante produzione, con il cambio di regista dopo una settimana e la presenza di Dalton Trumbo, famoso…

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Zoe and Dino from A Cat in Paris / Une vie de chat

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# 10 - Phantom Boy (Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol, 2015)