René Laloux (; 13 July 1929 – 15 March 2004) was a French animator, screenwriter and film director.

Biography

He was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1929 and went to art school to study

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. After some time working in

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

, he got a job in a psychiatric institution where he began experimenting in animation with the interns. It is at the psychiatric institution that he made the 1960 film ''Monkey's Teeth'' ('' Les Dents du Singe''), in collaboration with

Paul Grimault Paul Grimault (; 23 March 1905 – 29 March 1994) was one of the most important French animators. He made many traditionally animated films that were delicate in style, satirical, and lyrical. His most important work is ''Le Roi et l'oiseau'' ...

's studio, and using a script written by the Cour Cheverny's interns. Another important collaborator of his was

Roland Topor Roland Topor (7 January 1938 – 16 April 1997) was a French illustrator, cartoonist, comics artist, painter, novelist, playwright, film and TV writer, filmmaker and actor, who was known for the surrealism, surreal nature of his work. He was of Po ...

with whom Laloux made ''Dead Time'' ('' Les Temps Morts'', 1964), ''The Snails'' ('' Les Escargots'', 1965) and his most famous work, the feature length ''Fantastic Planet'' ('' La Planète Sauvage'', 1973). Laloux also worked with Jean Giraud ( Mœbius) to create the lesser known film ''

Les Maîtres du temps ''Les Maîtres du temps'' ( ''The Masters of Time'', ''Time Masters''; ''Herrscher der Zeit'' in German; ''Az idő urai'' in Hungarian) is a 1982 independent animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux and designed by Mœbius. I ...

'' (''Time Masters''), released in 1982. Laloux's 1987 film, ''Gandahar'', was released in the US as ''

Light Years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astro ...

'', and made in cooperation with the artist Caza. The US version was redubbed by

Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (, ; born March 19, 1952) is an American film producer and convicted sex offender. In 1979, Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent ...

, from a screenplay adapted by

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

. The US version was not as successful as the French, grossing less than $400,000 on its release. Laloux died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 14 March 2004 in

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...

Charente Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, and also the r ...

Poitou-Charentes Poitou-Charentes (; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ) was an administrative region on the southwest coast of France. It comprised four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. It included the historical provinces of Angoumo ...

, France.

Filmography

Feature films *''

Fantastic Planet ''Fantastic Planet'' (; , ) is a 1973 animated science fiction film directed by René Laloux. Its allegorical story, about humans living on a strange planet dominated by giant humanoid aliens who consider them animals, is based on the 1957 nov ...

'' (1973)Don Bluth Goes Independent - AWN.com
/ref> *'' Time Masters'' (1982) *'' Gandahar'' (1987) (released in the U.S. in bowdlerized form under the title ''Light Years'') Short films *''Tick-Tock'' (''Tic-Tac'') (1957) *''Les Achalunés'' (1958) *''The Monkey's Teeth (Les Dents du singe)'' (1960) *''Dead Times (Les Temps morts)'' (1964) *''The Snails (Les Escargots)'' (1965) *''The Play'' (1975) *''Quality Control'' (1984) *''The Captive (La Prisonnière)'' (1985) *''How Wang-fo Was Saved (Comment Wang-Fo fut sauvé)''
1987
*''Eye of the Wolf (L'Œil du loup)'' (1998) (screenwriter only)

References

External links

*
René Laloux biography
at Le Palais des dessins animés
eurekavideo.co.uk, ''Masters of Cinema series''
– Craig Keller: ''The schizophrenic cinema of René Laloux'', 2006.

at Lessons From the School of Inattention {{DEFAULTSORT:Laloux, Rene 1929 births 2004 deaths French animators French film directors French animated film directors French science fiction film directors French surrealist artists French fantasy artists French fantasy film directors