The King and the Bird

the King and the Bird is a Cartoon French created by Paul Grimault, with texts of Jacques Prévert according to the Shepherdess and the Chimney sweeper of Hans Christian Andersen, and left to the cinema on March 19th 1980. Extracts of film also were published in the editions Gallimard a few months later.

This film knew a first life under the title: the Shepherdess and the Chimney sweeper left in 1953, with a different Assembly, imposed by the production and repudiated by the two authors. In 1966, Paul Grimault recovers the rights and negative film which lasted 62 minutes, then redraws the existing scenes, turns of new sequences and entirely goes up it to give to the King and the Bird (87 minutes).

The voices of the Shepherdess and the Chimney sweeper as well as the music of Joseph Kosma were not used for the King and the Bird , only some musical extracts of Kosma were taken again.

Synopsis

The King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI (Charles Five and Three make Eight and Eights make Sixteen) is a Tyran which controls the kingdom of Takicardie. This king is in love with charming a shepherdess, but the heart of the young girl is taken by small a Ramoneur “of nothing the whole” (these two characters left tables present in the royal room). Thanks to the assistance of a Oiseau, which with the practice of narguer the king, those is able to flee of the royal palace, continued by the police force. The film evokes this continuation with poetry and softness.

Characters

• The King Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI of Takicardie , it is a megalomaniac and solitary tyrant enthusiast of the Shepherdess. A painter carries out one carried of him. This portrait takes life and replaces the former king.

• The Bird accustomed to narguer and to ridicule the king of which he is the worst enemy.

• The Shepherdess , left a table placed in the room of the king, it is in love with the Ramoneur which is in the table located just beside his.

• The Chef of the Police force is simple of devoted spirit body and heart with the King.

• The Aveugle is a player of barrel organ which hopes for a better world.

• The Oisillons , they are the four children of the Bird. Three are entirely similar and the last is the opposite of his/her brothers (in particular thanks to the inversion of the colors): it is adventurous, and is often made take in the traps of the King.

• The Dog of the King : it is a puppy which will stick to the four oisillons and which adores to play of the turns to the Chief of the Police force.

• The Automate is a gigantic machine built by the King. It will be discovered that it is perhaps equipped with a clean heart.

Comment

This film is also an anthem against the Totalitarisme and if it attentively is looked at, one can belong there to allusions to the Nazisme and the Stalinisme (worship of the personality). It takes again expensive topics with Jacques Prévert, such as freedom and the love.

The king is a character méprisable, coleric and terribly egocentric person: he has the right of life or of died on its subjects, all its collaborator close relations obey to him blindly and he is surrounded by inefficient and imbeciles.

The film depicts an absolute monarchy or a tyranny.

This film also largely refers to the topic of art to the service of propaganda . The many “works of art” (gigantic sculptures, paintings, monuments) to the effigy of the king are so many and grotesque that all these objects do not have to some extent any more the attribute to be art, being only of pure propaganda. There is a particular scene where the king, looking through a window, sees a representation of him armed with a lance and killing a gigantic rhinoceros. The object conveys a lie, namely that it represents the sovereign like a powerful warrior and hunter. This kind of representation existed in the old Middle East, in Mésopotamie, under certain dynasties.

The city of Takicardie is a harmonious mixture of monuments of various times and cities different like the Pont from the Sighs of Venice. There is in addition a whole part of the town of Takicardie whose only lanes are channels.

The objets d'art take life in film, which contributes to increase its matter and its poetry. It is not explicitly suggested in film, but it is possible that the bird and its oisillons, as well as the shepherdess and the chimney sweeper, was in the beginning the characters of a table.

Data sheet

Realization: Paul Grimault; assistant: Emile Le Bourget
Scenario: Jacques Prévert and Paul Grimault according to the shepherdess and the chimney sweeper of Hans Christian Andersen; dialogs of Jacques Prévert
Production: the Films Paul Grimault, the Films Gibé, Antenna 2
Music: Wojciech Kilar, interpreted by the Symphonic Full orchestra of Television Polonaise of Katowice under the direction of Stanislaw Wislocki

the songs extracted the film the Shepherdess and the Chimney sweeper words of Jacques Prévert were composed by Joseph Kosma sung by Jacques Jansen, Eric Amado, Jean Martin Enoch editions and Co

Décors: Paul Grimault, with the artistic collaboration of Lionel Charpy and Roger Duclent

and for the extracts of the shepherdess and the chimney sweeper : L. Danet, R. Duclent, B. Fiévé, Mr. Saufnai, E. Zilahy for the decorations and G. Helbig for the tracing and the gouachage

Animation: Gabriel Allignet, Pierre Brasseur, Marcel Colbrant, Alain Costa, Guy Faisien, Henri Lacam, Philippe Landrot, Philippe Leclerc, Free Milia, Bernard Roso, Alberto Ruiz, Jean Vimenet, Pierre Watrin; assistant : Coralline Yordamlis

and for the extracts of the shepherdess and the chimney sweeper : Henri Lacam, G. Allignet, J. Aurance, G. Dubrisay, R. Dumotier, L. Dupont, R. Genestre, P. Granger, G. July, P. Landrot, J. Leroux, L. Placed, R. Moreau, J. Mutschler, P. Ovtcharoff, J. Rannaud, R. Richez, R. Rosé, A. Ruiz, R. Ségui, J. Vausseur, P. Watrin

Tracing: Gigi Bonnin, Simone Heathers, Lidia Cardet, Francoise Gillot, Colette Jacquemot, Charlotte Roger
Gouachage: Madeleine Camolli-Beauchesne, Frederique Doyère and Pierre Grimault
Choice of the voices and artistic collaboration of Pierre Prévert
Taken sights Gerard Soirant
Recording of the voices: Claude Panier, Bob Chaubaroux
Sound effects: Henri Gruel
Sound recording: Rene Hanotel
Assembly sound: Aline Asséo and Rene Chaussy
Mixing: Jean Neny
Lasted: 87 minutes (1. 27)

Vocal distribution

the king and the bird (1980)

Jean Martin: the bird
Pascal Mazzotti: the king Charles V + III = VIII + VIII = XVI (Charles Five and Three make Eight and Eights make Sixteen)
Raymond Bussières: the chief of the police force
Agnes Viala: the shepherdess
Renaud Marx: the chimney sweeper
Hubert Deschamps: the sententious
Roger Blin: the blind man
Philippe Derrez: the lift attendant and the loudspeaker
Albert Medina: the belluaire and the haut-hurlor
Claude Piéplu: the mayor of the palate

and Lionel Charpy, Jacques Colombat, Jean Herbert, Robert Lombard, Jean Mermet, Vincent Montrobert, Pierre Risch, Bruno Sermone, Jean Vimenet, Jeanne Witta.

the shepherdess and the chimney sweeper (1953)

Pierre Brasseur: the bird
Fernand Ledoux: the king
Anouk Aimee: the shepherdess
Serge Reggiani: the chimney sweeper

Around film

This film swarms with references:

the “city low” resembles that of Metropolis of Fritz Lang
the assembly line work makes think of the Modern times of Charles Chaplin
certain decorations evoke paintings of Giorgio de Chirico
the sets of trap doors point out the trap door of Ubu of Alfred Jarry

the film is dedicated to Jacques Prévert, died in 1977. During the first projection, Paul Grimault had held a place beside him, for Jacques Prévert.

It joined together 1,7 million spectators to the cinema in 1980.

Rewards

1952 : the Shepherdess and the Chimney sweeper was preceded in Venice in September 1952.
1979 : Price Louis-Delluc 1979, decreed in December whereas it had not left yet in rooms.
2004 : Special price of Jury DVD to the Cannes festival 2004.

Restoration

It was restored by StudioCanal, then presented in numerical projection high-definition to the Cannes festival 2003.

A double DVD of this remasterized version left for Christmas 2003 container inter alia:

the King and the Bird ,
the S3eance table ,
documentary on the King and the Bird ,
an interview of Paul Grimault.

See too

List of the feature-length films of animation
the Castle in the sky of Hayao Miyazaki which took as a starting point this work for its cartoon film

External bonds

extremely complete File on objectif-cinema.com
Technical details, interviews, the teaching restoration
File
Site perso where one finds inter alia the script of the film

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