Tout rien (1980)

Director:

Frédéric Back

Writer:

Frédéric Back (scenario)

Release Date:

23 September 1992 (France)

Genre:

Animation | Short

Plot Keywords:

Creation | God | Greed

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Directed by
Frédéric Back

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Frédéric Back		scenario

Produced by
Frédéric Back	....	producer
Hubert Tison	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Normand Roger

Film Editing by
Jacques Leroux

Sound Department
Michel Descombes	....	sound mixer
Marien Desrosiers	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Webster	....	camera operator

Animation Department
Frédéric Back	....	designer
Suzanne Raymond	....	assistant animator
Jean Sarault	....	assistant animator

Production Companies

• Société Radio-Canada

Distributors

• Les Films du Paradoxe (1992) (France) (theatrical)

Also Known As:

"All Nothing" - Canada (English title)

Runtime:

11 min

Country:

Canada

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:Unrated

Company:

Société Radio-Canada

Mankind's place in the world

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Frédéric Back is an award-winning, German-born Canadian animator. Though his list of film credentials is surprisingly short, he has made up for a lack of quantity with a string of remarkable animated short films. Four of his works have been nominated for an Academy Award, and two of these bids were proved successful ('Crac (1982)' and the highly-acclaimed 'L' Homme qui plantait des arbres / The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)'). Back's first Oscar-nominated effort, 'Tout rien / All Nothing' of 1980 is a remarkably artistic Creationistic interpretation of the creation of the the world, and of Mankind's place within it.

Curiously enough, Back seems to have incorporated a concept of evolution into the Creator-driven development of life of Earth. First He creates the animals – each species appearing to spring forth from another – and then He makes them noble and beautiful. The underlying hint of evolution is most evident in the creation of humans, who first arrive into the world as bald and purposeless beings. The thoughtful Creator attempts to adapt them to a life in the oceans, but He later deems this to be a bad decision, instead turning them into hairy apes. When the humans begins to get fleas, the Creator decides to turn them into birds, and they (for a short time, at least) soar joyfully over the magnificent landscape. When their large size proves unsuitable for building a nest on a frail tree branch, the Creator finally gives up on the humans, reverting them back to plain, uncolourful human beings.

Angry and frustrated at being neglected by their God, the two people embark on something of a rampage, killing the Creator's stunningly beautiful birds and beasts so that they may wear their victims' attire and be beautiful themselves. This nasty habit continues over generations, with the ancestors of our Adam and Eve persisting with their raping of the natural countryside, felling entire forests, slaughtering innocent mammals, shooting flocks of birds from the sky, netting entire oceans of aquatic life. In the process, Mankind in all his fury manages to kill the God himself, the Creator's eye pierced by an arrow.

Even with all of his "progress," Mankind is still left feeling empty and unfulfilled, and we revert back to our original Adam and Eve, who now sit alone in an arid, empty landscape, pleading for their Creator once more. In an attempt at redemption, the two humans begin to reverse the damage that they have caused, releasing the captured animals and allowing life to thrive once more. There is, indeed, still hope for the human race, despite the destruction that we have already inflicted. And Frédéric Back just tells it so beautifully!