Les temps morts (1964)

Director:

René Laloux

Writers:

René Laloux (writer)
Jacques Sternberg (text)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Drama | Comedy

Plot:

What is man ? Man makes war, man kills man, man hunts, man is executed. A montage mixing original drawings by Topor, original shots and stock shots that ironically analyze what man is. |

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Roland Dubillard

...

Récitant / Narrator (voice)

Also Known As:

Dead Times (International: English title)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Como Films

mankind's brutality, real deaths and surrealism, or something like that

A very strange film! Begins with a shot of a planet, followed by footage of Asian children playing in the streets with guns, and then footage of war. Then it switches to illustrations, black and white pen & ink drawings the camera moves over, people in various states of undress and dismemberment. Much of it is not animated, but some animation follows. Not entirely surreal, but somewhat. For example, a man rides a dead horse, the horse's front and hind legs being carried by two other men, following a man with a castle for hair. Back to actual footage, snorkelers fishing, riflery, bullfighting. More painterly style illustrations follow, men and women in the act of stabbing and shooting. More primitive animations, a woman in lingerie inhabiting a house made out of suitcases that each jail men's decapitated heads. Photographs of people being guillotined, hung, beheaded, electrocuted.

There's a French narrator, I wish I knew what he was saying!