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René who? You may well know René Laloux for his film Fantastic Planet (La Planète Sauvage) which, after acclaim on its 1973 release, resurfaced in the rave era as a chillout room favourite. Laloux deserves more than that though - he deserves mainstream recognition alongside the likes of Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki (whom he influenced) and John Lasseter.During the course of his career, he worked with such figures as Roland Topor, the Jewish surrealist artist (whose novel The Tenant was adapted by Polanski); several of the creative talents involved with Metal Hurlant magazine (such as Moebius and Caza); and innovative musicians like Alain Goraguer, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Gabriel Yared. Subsequent to Fantastic Planet, a TV project evolved into 1982’s Les Maîtres Du Temps (The Time Masters). Despite the dissatisfaction of Laloux, and collaborator Moebius, with the quality of the animation (done on a very tight budget with a Hungarian studio), this more child-friendly feature builds on the themes and idiosyncrasies found in his 1973 masterpiece – anti-totalitarianism (whatever its hue), remarkable alien ecologies (with highly sexualised forms) and twistings of time and scale. His final feature, 1988’s Gandahar, was slicker, more adult, and returned to similar themes, telling an allegorical story of the brutalising effects of over-industrialisation in its clash of a bare-breasted, organic-technology-based culture with an unstoppable army of black, heartless robots. It was mangled into a US release by Harvey “Scissorhands” Weinstein, but thanks to Eureka! Entertainment can now be seen as Laloux intended it, alongside its similarly fascinating precursors. Les Maîtres Du Temps and Gandahar, out 22 October 07 on Eureka! Entertainment.
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comment by mikul-canterbury
Nov 15, 2007
With Wikipedia as my witness, I am certain I watched The Time Masters AKA Les Maîtres du Temps at Christmas in 1987. I instantly recognised this film through a single picture of the protagonist and his microphone almost twenty years later; a testament to the resonating power of this gem of a film.Unfortunately, the DVD released is not the BBC version. The BBC are mentioned in the opening titles and, after a quick search on Youtube, it's clear there are several language versions recorded besides French. Indeed, Wikipedia notes the voice of Jaffar in the English version was provided by Ray Brooks AKA Mr. Benn. PLEASE, SOMEONE AT THE BBC, FIND THE ENGLISH DUB OF THIS WONDERFUL FILM AND RELEASE IT. Then, maybe a future generation of children will experience this understated, intelligent and unassumingly complex film.
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