<<< September 22 - 24, 2006 >>>

Discuss this series with other film fans on:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque

Some of the programs in this series are also playing at the Aero Theatre.

In this outgrowth of the L.A. Film Critics’ Association’s ongoing FILMS THAT GOT AWAY project, the focus is on great and rarely shown animated features and short films, none of which have received commercial theatrical distribution in the U.S. This ambitious and delightful program includes European milestones like Ladislas Starewitch’s REYNARD THE FOX (LE ROMAN DE RENARD) (first time ever with English subtitles!) – a legendary but little seen animated feature whose premiere predated Disney’s SNOW WHITE by a full year – and works by contemporary masters, including Japanese animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki, New York-based veteran George Griffin and renowned Russian expatriate filmmaker Igor Kovalyov. Our series is also home to edgy and brilliant short films, including Steffen Schaffler’s Oscar-nominated chiller "The Periwig-Maker", Chicago-based animator Lisa Barcy’s intricate and hilarious "The Guilt Trip" and J. J. Villard’s dark and daring Bukowski adaptation "Son Of Satan". Also featured in this program: A rare screening of the 1980 Oscar nominee "All Nothing" (Tout Rien) by Canada’s living legend, animator Frederic Back. See a once-in-a-lifetime bigscreen presentation of Miyazaki’s rarest feature-length project, Yoshifumi Kondo’s WHISPER OF THE HEART. Experience DANGEROUS VISIONS, our evening of groundbreaking shorts that are definitely NOT for the kids! Plus: Premieres! Panels! Parties! A continent of wonders awaits at our Egyptian/Aero mini-festival of THE ANIMATED FILMS THAT GOT AWAY!!!

Friday, September 22 – 7:30 PM

Filmmakers In-Person! LAFCA Animation/Films That Got Away Series presents Rare Films and World Premieres!

"DANGEROUS VISIONS: ANIMATED SHORTS FOR CONNOISSEURS & GROWN-UPS" Somewhere between the always-popular use of animation as a vehicle for fairytale and fable and the slapstick extremities of the "extra-sick-and-twisted" school, there is another country, filled with the tactile, the disturbing, the mundane and the visionary. DANGEROUS VISIONS is our program of animation for grown-ups and connoisseurs, dedicated to animated works of uncommon artistic excellence that create unique and often disquieting but fully realized worlds. Acclaimed Russian-born animator Igor Kovalyov will be in attendance for our screening of "Milch" (US, 2005, 15 min.) an elliptical portrait of accumulating middle class betrayals that packs a novel’s worth of character detail into 15 minutes or less. Young turk animator J. J. Villard will be on hand with his stunning adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s "Son Of Satan" (US, 2003, 12 min.), an edgy and profane re-imagining of childhood as a homicide waiting to happen, which Manohla Dargis of the New York Times has praised for its "rough-hewn beauty" and Villard’s "singular talent." In Stefan Schaffler’s Tim Burton-esque "The Periwig-Maker" (Germany, 1999, 15 min.), Dafoe’s "Journal of the Plague Year" is used as an eerie auditory counterpoint to an 18th Century wigmaker’s experience of bubonic death. Canada’s master animator Frederic Back received an Oscar nomination for his ecological masterwork "All Nothing" (Tout Rien) (Canada, 1980, 11 min.), a fable about Adam and Eve and the death of God. In George Griffin's ambiguously sweet "A Little Routine" (US, 1994, 7 min.), surrealist technique dramatizes a child's shifting perceptions of adulthood during a bedtime conversation between a father and daughter. Chicago-based Lisa Barcy’s "The Guilt Trip, Or The Vaticans Take A Holiday" (US, 2004, 14 min.) is a stop-motion tour-de-"farce" that makes Catholic guilt syndrome seem fun, starring Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and the late great Pope John Paul II. In Mike Overbeck's "Atlas Takes a Drink" (US, 1999, 3:30 min.) two fish make an act of civil disobedience against the laws of nature, with hilarious and snowballing results. Plus: Two+One By Nina Paley. Best remembered locally for her alternative comic strip Nina’s Adventures (syndicated in the L.A. Reader, 1988 - 1995), Nina Paley has re-invented herself as a trailblazing feminist animator in her fascinating, idiosyncratic and ambitious works. DANGEROUS VISIONS will present two World Theatrical Premieres from Paley’s animated feature-in-progress SITA SINGS THE BLUES, a re-imagining of the Ramayana of Hindu lore as an epic Betty Boop cartoon, with accompanying blues songs by Annette Hanshaw. First, we debut the just-struck 35mm print of "Battle Of Lanka," (US, 2006, 3 min.) the first SITA segment ever seen on film by any audience, anywhere. Next is "Grief And Birth" (US, 2006, 3 min.), a just-completed SITA segment! PLUS: A look back at Paley’s "Pandorama" (US, 2000, 3 min.) a free-form stunner hand-drawn on 70mm IMAX short-ends presenting the "Pandora’s Box" mythos in "Garden of Eden" terms. Discussion following with filmmakers J. J. Villard, Igor Kovalyov and Lisa Barcy moderated by LAFCA member and series programmer Ray Greene.

Saturday, September 23 – 7:30 PM

LAFCA Animation/Films That Got Away Series presents French Animation Masterworks – Then and Now!

RAINING CATS AND FROGS (LA PROPHETIE DES GRENOUILLES), 2003, Canal Plus, 90 min. Calling all TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE fans! The first animated feature produced entirely within French borders in over two decades, director Jacques-Remy Girerd’s whimsical and imaginative story of Noah’s Ark, recast as an award-winning contemporary fable and epic adventure story. In the amphibian kingdom, evidence is mounting that a new deluge will soon submerge the earth. After a harrowing storm, a multi-ethnic farm family and the animal inhabitants of a nearby zoo find themselves adrift on a floating barn in a seemingly endless sea. Equally an environmental parable and a pacifistic commentary about hysteria in a time of crisis, this is the perfect animated feature for the age of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and the "terror alert," offering sanity and mediation as an antidote to our new era of anxiety. Six years in the making, it is a beautifully mounted film that is appropriate viewing for all ages, offering a painless way to introduce the whole family to the pleasures of foreign film-going. A refreshing hand-drawn animation style lends a storybook air to Girerd’s delightful animal characters, which include argumentative elephants, amphibian weather forecasters and cackling carnivores with designs on the rest of the crew. In French with English subtitles.

THE TABLE TURNS (LE TABLE TOURNANTE), 1988, Canal Plus, 95 min. Dirs. Paul Grimault, Jacques Demy. The late, great animator Paul Grimault has been called "the Walt Disney of France" and is acknowledged as a primary influence by contemporary Japanese maestro Hayao Miyazaki. In this charming compendium of Grimault’s career, Grimault (appearing as himself) leads the "Accordion Clown" from his masterwork THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD on a guided, chronological tour of Grimault’s best and most well-known works. Grimault re-edited his own films for inclusion here. The "Out-of-the-Inkwell"-like live action sequences in which Grimault and his creation interact were directed by the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy (THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG). A delightful introduction to and summation of one of European animation’s greatest oeuvres (if we may be so French...). In French with English subtitles.

Sunday, September 24 - 7:30 PM

Hayao Miyazaki’s Rarest Feature-Length Production!

WHISPER OF THE HEART (MIMI WO SUMASEBA), 1995, Studio Ghibli/Buena Vista International, 111 min. Dir. Yoshifumi Kondo. Produced and written by Hayao Miyazaki. In the mid-1990’s, the great Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki (SPIRITED AWAY) wanted to begin mentoring a new generation of animation artists in Japan. The result was this gentle coming-of-age drama scripted, produced and storyboarded by Miyazaki and then directed by Yoshifumi Kondo (later animation director on PRINCESS MONONOKE), whom Miyazaki hoped would introduce new blood into the directors at his Studio Ghibli. Adapted from the manga by Aoi Hiragi, the film tells the story of Shizuku, a shy student with high school entrance exam worries and inchoate aspirations, who meets a magical cat on a commuter bus and follows it to a boutique where significant objects abound, each with a story of its own. Notable for its celebration of the mysteries of daily living, "Miyazaki's script suggests that a sense of magic can exist, even in everyday Tokyo," according to animation historian Charles Solomon. The story of a young girl finding her voice both literally and figuratively, this is a film tinged by tragedy: Sadly, Yoshifumi Kondo died of a brain aneurysm in 1998. His only feature attests to his talent, and Miyazaki has yet to find an equally talented protégé. English Dubbed Version. Rare Miyazaki promotional merchandise will be given away at the screening!